Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Since I’m clearly struggling with my M/W/F posting schedule, should I accept reality–maybe just for the summer, maybe not–and switch to T/Th? I’m pondering.

I have zero regrets about the time we spent with friends that moved out of the neighborhood in January, which was lovely and involved most of yesterday afternoon. And I managed to hit the post office yesterday morning, since my great-nephew is apparently obsessed with a book series that we owned four of but weren’t passionate about. (Britt passed some of the books down to us, but only my younger two were still young enough, and neither one was terribly into them. I actually thought they were fun, but I’d rather pass them on to a passionate fan!) Today I have errands staring me in the face, but since one of them is returning library books, I wanted to review Wendy Xu’s Tidesong.

Meh.

I wanted to really like it, you know? Water dragons and mythology and a girl main character trying to find her confidence, etc. Unfortunately, I was just as annoyed as I was entertained. Sophie is sometimes likable but often not–the stereotypical “I’m going to ignore everything my experienced relatives tell me and do what I want without regard for the consequences” character. Xu’s technique for showing us the dark voices of insecurity and pressure in Sophie’s head isn’t bad, but–I’m not sure it makes her appreciably more likable. As for the adults–most of them start out as just plain mean, and the ones that change do so too suddenly and completely for believability. Sophie’s relationship with the water dragon is meant to outlast her mistakes, but it wants more development to make that realistic.

Really, the phrase ‘wants more development’ is probably the best way to sum up Tidesong. There’s potential there, and its intended audience might not mind how abruptly the plot moves along, but older readers will–mind, that is. The art is often enjoyable (although Sophie’s hair is a bit much for me), but the story needs more fleshing out. Any readers out there want to comment on their impressions?