Review by Wacamato1961 -- The Neighbour At Number 18 (Re...
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Wacamato1961
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- Latest Review: The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload) by Hawa Crickmore
Review by Wacamato1961 -- The Neighbour At Number 18 (Re...
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload)" by Hawa Crickmore.]
The copy of The Neighbor at Number 18 (Reload) by Hawa L. Crickmore that I read appears to be an early manuscript of The Neighbor at Number 18 (She Seemed to Ask) which was published in 2018 by a company called AuthorHouse. I used the Kindle Edition of the later revision to aid in this review.
This is a narrative of a girl named Maria after she meets her neighbor Emilia, and the repercussions this has on her life. Emilia is 3 or 4 years older than Maria but dresses and acts much older. Tyler, Emilia’s cousin, is in his twenties and pressures Emilia to introduce him to some of her younger friends. Tyler is caught and arrested before he can molest 13-year-old Maria, but she delights in his attention and secretly loves him for the rest of her life.
The title The Neighbor at Number 18 is somewhat misleading, as the neighbor initially appears to involve only a small part of Maria’s life. Much later in the narrative, however, Maria’s husband’s short-term involvement with neighbor Shirley is compared to Maria’s imagined relationship with Tyler. In retrospect, this situation is quite a bombshell, and I thought it deserved just a bit more attention as a definitive climactic event.
I found the story insightful, with many intriguing and well-rounded characters. I thought the chapters were somewhat haphazard; the chronology of events is unclear. There are a few bloopers, such as when Ron first asks Maria out because “Valentine’s Day is just around the corner,” while Maria enjoyed herself on the same date, thinking “the cold beer in the summer evening was perfect.” Also, in the beginning, Brenda describes her happy marriage to James saying that Maria was born first, then Jonathan, and then baby Anna (chapter 1, paragraph 5). However, in paragraph 12, the baby is described as a boy, and thereafter never mentioned again.
Bloopers notwithstanding, I recommend the book. Mature readers will enjoy its melancholy feel and real-life situations and emotions; it left me in a contemplative state of mind. Punctuation errors were nearly eliminated in the published edition, but a few remain. There is just a bit of profanity, and sexual (pedophilic) situations are mentioned but not described in detail.
I suggest this book would perhaps be more satisfying to the reader if the title somehow emphasized that this is Maria's journey. I rate it 2 out of 4, as it could benefit from further editing, but I also look forward to reading another book by Hawa Crickmore, Across the Ocean, of which the synopsis promises complex and mysterious relationships.
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The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The copy of The Neighbor at Number 18 (Reload) by Hawa L. Crickmore that I read appears to be an early manuscript of The Neighbor at Number 18 (She Seemed to Ask) which was published in 2018 by a company called AuthorHouse. I used the Kindle Edition of the later revision to aid in this review.
This is a narrative of a girl named Maria after she meets her neighbor Emilia, and the repercussions this has on her life. Emilia is 3 or 4 years older than Maria but dresses and acts much older. Tyler, Emilia’s cousin, is in his twenties and pressures Emilia to introduce him to some of her younger friends. Tyler is caught and arrested before he can molest 13-year-old Maria, but she delights in his attention and secretly loves him for the rest of her life.
The title The Neighbor at Number 18 is somewhat misleading, as the neighbor initially appears to involve only a small part of Maria’s life. Much later in the narrative, however, Maria’s husband’s short-term involvement with neighbor Shirley is compared to Maria’s imagined relationship with Tyler. In retrospect, this situation is quite a bombshell, and I thought it deserved just a bit more attention as a definitive climactic event.
I found the story insightful, with many intriguing and well-rounded characters. I thought the chapters were somewhat haphazard; the chronology of events is unclear. There are a few bloopers, such as when Ron first asks Maria out because “Valentine’s Day is just around the corner,” while Maria enjoyed herself on the same date, thinking “the cold beer in the summer evening was perfect.” Also, in the beginning, Brenda describes her happy marriage to James saying that Maria was born first, then Jonathan, and then baby Anna (chapter 1, paragraph 5). However, in paragraph 12, the baby is described as a boy, and thereafter never mentioned again.
Bloopers notwithstanding, I recommend the book. Mature readers will enjoy its melancholy feel and real-life situations and emotions; it left me in a contemplative state of mind. Punctuation errors were nearly eliminated in the published edition, but a few remain. There is just a bit of profanity, and sexual (pedophilic) situations are mentioned but not described in detail.
I suggest this book would perhaps be more satisfying to the reader if the title somehow emphasized that this is Maria's journey. I rate it 2 out of 4, as it could benefit from further editing, but I also look forward to reading another book by Hawa Crickmore, Across the Ocean, of which the synopsis promises complex and mysterious relationships.
******
The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload) by Hawa Crickmore
