Orchards

Orchards Characters: Kana, her friends her family Kana is an 8th grade girl who is sent away because of the suicide of a classmate that one of her friends supposedly caused she is punished and sent to japan. All the characters are flat at times it was hard to remember who her friends were when one of there names would pop up or even what her name was. Random characters would be named out of no where random crushes and friends which really did nothing for the story. What pulled the characters down and made it unbelievable was their age they are in 8th grade 14 and yet the story reads and acts like they are in high school or 18 children pretending to be adults none of these characters act their age at all they act more like the prissy clique of high school girls then 14 year olds this is what made it hard to relate to them that and an 8th grader liking physics and planning on taking a course in a continuity college next year. This makes them unbelievable and Flat. These characters are are flat with little dimension to them after the heartbreaking “thirteen reasons why” with tangible characters and reasons these characters feel like children playing dress up FStory: Not everyone can write a verse novel and have it come out pure prose with a coherent and enjoyable story Lisa Schroeder and Steven Herrick are two authors that can pull this off well (very well in fact) and of course there are other verse writers out there. Unlike traditional books with verse both the writing and the story have to be spot on if one fails the other will fall with it. Not so with traditional novels where you can have amazing writing but a so so story (example look at any book you have rated 4 stars). Sadly this story suffers because the writing wasn't up to par with what one would expect from verse. The writing is slow and thick like syrup it doesn't flow easily even when one of Lisa schroeders works would get murky and slow it was still a fascinating read with “Orchards” it stays slow and thick though out the book. The details about japan and japanese culture will interest any manga readers it feels rich and magical. The story it's self is a bit askew on one hand the theme is supposedly the suicide of a classmate and kana's reaction to it but if feels more like a fan girly overview of japan the suicide getting pushed to the back of the story. Japan seems to take front and center and while kana does tell the story as though she is speaking to the dead girl it doesn't feel like a suicide story. This story comes off more as a day to day happens in kana's life in japan which is fine and all but also makes for a dull read also that is not what the summery says the summery makes this sound like this is a coming of age/ suicide novel and how people deal with grief. By page 230 in this 325 page monster (for a verse novel that is) all we know is her day to day life in japan. Because of this you feel very detached from the story eager for something exciting to happen page after page of dullness. In short this story is melodramatic, dull and 27 pages to long then it should have been DCover: The cover is split on the top you see kana or at least her chin and mouth and her twirling her hair at the bottom you see an orange and blue so much blue but it is a pretty sky blue and while this says nothing about the story inside the cover is eye catching and pretty BRating: YA Company: Random house My rating : 3 of 5 On the note of writing I actually had to jump off my bed and grab “the day before” by Lisa Schroeder close my eyes and flip to a random page and just re read something to remind myself that yes in fact I do love verse novels....they just have to be written by Lisa Schroeder or Steven Herrick is another one I really loved but only them. What I think pushed this story is the ages the characters are in middle school they are 14.....ugh and uh? Something depressing happens and they out right state she was 14 while this isn't impossible it still raises to many questions to be reasonable in a story like this. Also in this particular story the deaths really don't seem to have a reason you don't get to know the characters enough to fell really bad about it also the story jumps to much either this is a story about family or about suicide it isn't balanced well. Also the ages threw me off also why would you want to separate a group of friends so they are each alone with out each other thus with out support (or so it would seem to them) after a suicide? Over all this book was not what I expected and I had hoped it would have been better after the amazing thirteen reasons why this book falls flat. This book leaves way to many questions here are some Why did she kill her self?Why were all the other girls punished?Did kana learn anything?Why where these girls friends in the first place?Who is friends with 28 people in RL all in one school?Who sends there 14 year old to a boarding school for the summer?Doesn't a minor need a parent r guardian on a trip across the world? To many questions and to syrupy thick you have to force your self though it writing