Official Review: Home Again 2020 by Roberta M Roy

[Sam Ibeh]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Home Again 2020" by Roberta M Roy.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Home Again 2020 by Roberta M. Roy tells the story of the Matters family who encountered so many tragedies. When a nuclear meltdown struck their home in Ariana, it caused a brain injury to Lou Matters, and he lost his left vision. He moved to Ohio with his family and stayed in his sister-in-law's home to receive medical attention. The Matters later returned to Ariana and tried to move on from the tragedy. Their two boys went back to school, Mary, Lou's wife, resumed her job as a speech-language pathologist, where she worked with emotionally distressed students in a public school, and Lou started working on his defective side. Lou became a web designer since it was no longer safe to work as a nuclear engineer, considering his flawed body.

Another disaster struck them in January 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced all the schools into a shutdown, and the family had to stay at home. Their situation worsened when the country went into chaos due to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. There was massive civil unrest. The story explains the Matters family's perseverance in facing and adapting to the different challenges that came their way.

Home Again 2020 evoked many emotions through the writer's ability to vividly express an event that brought many sentimental outpourings across the world. The author created engaging dialogues among the characters, which endeared me to them. Roberta also used a lot of creativity in developing the characters, and this is commendable. The author brought realism to the characters, making the reader relate to what each of the characters went through. I was touched deeply by the Matters family's situation and ability always to try to bounce back in love. For instance, despite Lou's condition, the family didn't treat him differently; Mary firmly acknowledged her husband and didn't make him feel like a lesser man, and the kids respected and loved their father even more. It is a captivating family story that outlines a lot of personal experiences the reader may have encountered, especially during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

I also want to commend the conversational writing style the author adopted. For a book this emotional, any other writing style would have made the book a lot more challenging to read. I even noticed that the author tried to communicate the characters' mannerisms through the dialogues. Here's an example of how Lou spoke: "Likewise. Whadidjado today?" It was evident that Lou couldn't speak polished English, and it made his character identifiable. Whenever a statement that looked like this was made, I knew it was Lou.

I had mixed feelings about the presentation of the research done to develop this story. As much as I expected the author to be factual regarding historical events, I didn't appreciate the numberings in between the text. They took away from the flow of the story. This is a historical fiction book and not a history text. This was the only complaint I had about the book. Though there were only a handful of errors, considering that the book contained only about 140 pages of readable text, I expected more from the editors. Therefore, I would recommend another round of editing. However, these concerns wouldn't be enough to take away any points from the book. I’d give it four out of four stars.

I will recommend this book to fans of historical fiction and those whose families face one challenge or the other. Also, if you are yet to recover from the perils of the Covid-19 pandemic, you can be inspired by this book.

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Home Again 2020
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[Becca Olsson]

This could be an interesting book to read as it’s a different perspective from what everybody else went and through and how we e all experienced the pandemic. Thanks for the insightful review

[Jackie Holycross]

This would be a good book to read in a few years to remember all the craziness this past year brought us.

[Basiya_Barkat]

It seems an Interesting book to read,how so many people faced the life threatening challenges in the pandemic and reminders us about this past year

[Macmike]

I enjoyed reading your review! I'm not a fan of historical fiction books but this one sounds interesting.

[Kavita Shah]

It must have been difficult for Lou Matter. It wasn't easy for anyone, and it would be an emotional read for me. Thank you for the review!

[Peace Odii]

It sounds like a story of a family that turned apart. I will like to read on Lou's character.

[Sakura5]

I like the historical fiction genre and this seems like an interesting one, especially for the contemporary setting. Nevertheless, I don't know if I would be ready to read such a book, since we are still in this pandemic situation, so the "recovering" process did not really start yet for me!

[Uzo_Reviews]

And that's fiction in its entirety right there. Depicting life events with imaginary character. And the fact it's didactic is endearing. Good job!

[onyii_review]

This sounds like an ideal book for families. How to conquer through tragedies especially. Nice review.

[Leen282]

I don't think I am ready yet to read fiction set against the background of the pandemic. I do like the characterization of the protagonists in their dialogue by adopting a specific writing style for each.

[Abi McCoy]

When I think of historical fiction, I don't usually think of 2019 and 2020. But reading this would be interesting to see another's perspective of what we just lived through. The numbering in the text does sound like it would detract from the narrative, though. Thank you for your review!

[Aan Granados]

At first, I thought this was non-fiction since the setting with the pandemic and death of George Floyd seem too new, so I was surprised this was historical fiction. I would be happy to read this. Thanks for your review.

[Akinlolureads]

It sounds interesting talking about the story of a turn apart family in that character.

[Lynda Howard]

Great Review, although I am not a fan of historical fiction books I do find it interesting that the author outlines a lot of experiences that the reader may have personally encountered during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.