2 out of 4 stars
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Do you think you’re pretty smart? Is it easy for you to talk to people? Are you good at sports? Well, you’ve got nothing on Aggie Moresy.
In Aggie Moresey: Water and Stone Part One by Francoise Jean, we are introduced to a fantastical child named Aggie. The book follows Aggie and the people she meets after she moves to her mother’s hometown following an unknown event. Based on the lack of cell phones and internet, but the fact that someone can have a really old color television, it appears to take place in the early 1980s to early 1990s. The story had some interesting spiritual elements and showed interest in Native American culture, but lacked in depth and flow. It also had some uncomfortable sexual interactions involving very young minors.
Aggie Moresey is 10 years old at the start of the book and turns 11 part of the way through. She picks up things very quickly, is good at everything she does, and reasons like a 30-year-old. On top of all of this, she can also communicate with spirits through some type of energy transfer. Aggie is the main reason I didn’t enjoy reading this book. The rest of the characters are more down-to-earth and realistic. Aggie’s only major flaw is that she isn’t able to see past other people’s experiences to realize that she needs more out of a relationship than just sex.
The fact that she has such a strong sexual urges at the age of ten made me really uncomfortable when I was reading it. I do not equate mental maturity to sexual maturity, so even if she has the thoughts and logical reasoning of someone much older, it does not mean that her body would be ready for sex in that way. What happens is not just some experimenting. The narrative is very close to things I have read in some romance novels in how explicit it is.
Sex being put aside, Aggie is just really difficult to relate to. She’s really smart, but she’s also really great at sports and is able to communicate with other people really well and is very popular. I’ve met people that are somewhat like her intelligence-wise and they are a lot more like Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory. Because their brains work so differently, they have a hard time being empathetic with other people and come off as strange or odd. Aggie just fits in perfectly no matter her surroundings. There might actually be someone like her out in the world, but it makes her character too unrelatable.
Aggie’s spiritual interactions are interesting and I think the book could have benefited more from plot being centered around this more than about what Aggie ate for every meal (more on this later). The only issue I had with Aggie and her spirits, was that there were a few plot-holes related to this aspect, mainly related to dialects. There could have been an easy fix for this as well.
The story itself is too divided and needs to focus on just one or two plots. Aggie just moved with her mom to their summer cabin in New England because of something related to Aggie’s father. She has to go to a new school and make new friends so part of the story is her adjusting to this new life. There are many subplots including a romance, a potential romance, a caper, small-town event planning, being attacked by thugs multiple times, a swim meet in Canada, discussions on religion and Native Americans, and much more.
The tone needs to be steady throughout. The book has one tone for the first half and then a different tone for the second half. This is probably due to the pacing and writing style. I was reading this on my Kindle so it showed the percentages instead of page numbers. The first 20 percent of the book was really difficult to get through. The whole book is very tell-not-show instead of show-not-tell, but the first part is the worst part in this regard. We learn what Aggie eats for every meal almost every day. Does this come up as an important plot point later? No. There is a lot that we don’t need to know that is told to us. Then there are some really interesting things that we would like to know that we’re not told. Instead of giving dialogue for the characters when they are conversing about Algonquin culture and history, the author just writes that they talk about it.
This book brings up some really interesting topics and has many fun and likeable secondary characters. It has a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes, but with some further editing and culling of several subplots, it could be a really good book (I suggest focusing on the Native American/spiritual storyline). Aggie would also have to be rewritten as a character. It’s like making a character for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. You have only so many stats you can take. Your character can’t be all powerful. That would just be boring.
I rate Aggie Moresey: Water and Stone Part One a 2 out of 4. I hope it can get some more work done on it so it may shine as the book that it can be. As a disclaimer, there is some foul language (Aggie can have quite the mouth on her). There is also explicit child sex, dream bestiality, references to child sex workers and drug use. There is some violence, but it’s not explicit. I would suggest ages 16 and up to read this, mainly because of the explicit sexual narrative. It’s a little more descriptive than the sex scenes in Snow Falling on Cedars. As for recommendations, I’m having a hard time thinking of what type of reader would enjoy this book as it is currently. Perhaps someone who might want a taste of Native American information or is into city-to-small town transition stories would like parts of this book.
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Aggie Moresey Water and Stone Part one
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-- 18 Dec 2015, 19:33 --
Hello All,
I just wanted to thank anyone who takes the time to read this review. I know it's not my best work. I'm still trying to improve my reviews on books that I did not enjoy reading. Authors put a lot of heart, work, and time into writing their books. They're very brave to give us the books to review. My goal as a reviewer is to bring attention to their work and either praise it and/or hopefully help point out things that can be improved in their future work. I really want my reviews to be insightful and enjoyable to read.
In short, I appreciate anyone that reads my work and I welcome any tips.
Thanks,
Thimble
