Review of Deceptive Calm

[KMay18]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Deceptive calm story began somewhat unexpectedly when I started reading it. You will follow the story of Vanessa's life, starting in her teenage years. Without spoiling anything the story would start most suddenly, on the bus to school a setting I was not expecting from what I had read from the book description. All of this story begins in South Carolina in 1968. You can learn, if you are not American, a little bit about the history of racial segregation and the aftermaths. Some moments in the book are crude reminders of the hostility people can have towards each other, some are sweet as your first love or prom night, and others are just an adventure like going to university. But you can also expect to read the effects and aftermaths when we make decisions that are high in emotions and have little experience in life.

One of the greatest strengths of this book is the adventures, descriptions, and feelings of each character. The descriptions are on point, making you feel the emotions or even like you were there with them, living what transpires in the book. Even so, I found some reasoning or twists in the story quite obvious while reading, but that didn't lessen the experience.

The reason for me to give it a 4 out of 5 is because of the way the pace of the story is handled. There were moments were I was immersed in what was happening and, suddenly the next chapter would have a time skip and leave me reeling for a couple of seconds. It made me wonder if I didn't skip something while reading. It also has a couple of errors but nothing that would stand out or affect the experience of the story, like the time skips did with me.

This book expresses straightforwardly what it wants the reader to learn, feel, and experience throughout the story and is quite enjoyable for an afternoon.

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Deceptive Calm
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