Review of Kalayla
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- Latest Review: Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas
Review of Kalayla
[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]
Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas is about a young girl who is eleven years old. The story is told mainly through the eyes of three people; Kalayla, Lena- an old woman who owns the building Kalayla and her mother live in and Maureen- Kalayla's mother. The story starts when Kalayla and her mother move in to Lena's apartment and just so happen to occupy the space directly across from her. The book mainly focuses on a parent's worst fear; not being a good enough parent to your children. That and the problem of missed opportunities, and the regret that haunts people when they look to the past and feel they could have done things differently and maybe their life might have turned out better for that. It is these themes that lead our three main characters to find their lives so entangled with each other.
The book is written in simple, easy to understand English and the sentences just flow from one to the other. It is hard to find yourself distracted once you start reading. The characters are well-developed and fleshed out and their actions are believable based on their characterization. We understand them more as the story progresses and we easily find ourselves rooting for them. There is good use of flashbacks as storytelling elements and they make the story richer by providing deep insight into our characters and their motivations. The revelations of character are also well spaced out so we don't feel bludgeoned with exposition. There is excellent execution of the themes that present themselves in the story. It does not feel preachy or like the author is trying to push some sort of agenda. The themes present themselves naturally, like a flower opening up in bloom.
There is not enough conflict or not heavy enough conflict. The stakes sometimes appeared to me to be over exaggerated and the feeling of inherent danger or loss were not that present. There is poor foreshadowing of events to come. I feel the foreshadowing would have been better if it were done more subtly and if there were less of it. Our main character, Kalayla, also does not have a main goal she is trying to achieve or overcome. As such the story just comes out rather vanilla and I dare say not exciting enough. I found myself sometimes bored because I did not have any clue as to where this story was headed and therefore I felt disappointed as I was not really that invested in Kalayla's journey.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars . This is mainly because the book is an excellent read when you pay attention to the thematic elements and the characterization is well done. It is told in a simple fashion that flows and the sentences just flow from to the other seemingly seamlessly. It's like watching a river flow. I would have given it a 4 if the main character was given a solid goal towards which she was drawn. It felt like she was just living life and things were just happening. As such, I could not root for her as much as I wanted to and that's a shame.
I would recommend this book for parents and lovers of drama. Parents because it talks mainly about parenting and the fear that most parents have is whether they children will grow up to hate them. I would also recommend it to people who feel they wasted chances in the past or should have done things differently. Ultimately, if you just love to read and enjoy increasing your book count, I would suggest reading this book at least once.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas is about a young girl who is eleven years old. The story is told mainly through the eyes of three people; Kalayla, Lena- an old woman who owns the building Kalayla and her mother live in and Maureen- Kalayla's mother. The story starts when Kalayla and her mother move in to Lena's apartment and just so happen to occupy the space directly across from her. The book mainly focuses on a parent's worst fear; not being a good enough parent to your children. That and the problem of missed opportunities, and the regret that haunts people when they look to the past and feel they could have done things differently and maybe their life might have turned out better for that. It is these themes that lead our three main characters to find their lives so entangled with each other.
The book is written in simple, easy to understand English and the sentences just flow from one to the other. It is hard to find yourself distracted once you start reading. The characters are well-developed and fleshed out and their actions are believable based on their characterization. We understand them more as the story progresses and we easily find ourselves rooting for them. There is good use of flashbacks as storytelling elements and they make the story richer by providing deep insight into our characters and their motivations. The revelations of character are also well spaced out so we don't feel bludgeoned with exposition. There is excellent execution of the themes that present themselves in the story. It does not feel preachy or like the author is trying to push some sort of agenda. The themes present themselves naturally, like a flower opening up in bloom.
There is not enough conflict or not heavy enough conflict. The stakes sometimes appeared to me to be over exaggerated and the feeling of inherent danger or loss were not that present. There is poor foreshadowing of events to come. I feel the foreshadowing would have been better if it were done more subtly and if there were less of it. Our main character, Kalayla, also does not have a main goal she is trying to achieve or overcome. As such the story just comes out rather vanilla and I dare say not exciting enough. I found myself sometimes bored because I did not have any clue as to where this story was headed and therefore I felt disappointed as I was not really that invested in Kalayla's journey.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars . This is mainly because the book is an excellent read when you pay attention to the thematic elements and the characterization is well done. It is told in a simple fashion that flows and the sentences just flow from to the other seemingly seamlessly. It's like watching a river flow. I would have given it a 4 if the main character was given a solid goal towards which she was drawn. It felt like she was just living life and things were just happening. As such, I could not root for her as much as I wanted to and that's a shame.
I would recommend this book for parents and lovers of drama. Parents because it talks mainly about parenting and the fear that most parents have is whether they children will grow up to hate them. I would also recommend it to people who feel they wasted chances in the past or should have done things differently. Ultimately, if you just love to read and enjoy increasing your book count, I would suggest reading this book at least once.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas
