More appropriate to a younger crowd
Arc provided by Random House Children's through Netgalley
Release Date: March 10 th
First of all...I usually inhale Alice Hoffman's novels
I love her writing style. I am crazy about it.
Of course I normally read her adult fiction stories which have a whole different depth _ although I do love her YA story Green Heart _, that I felt was missing here.
I don't know if the middle grade audience will appreciate this novel: From time to time it has Alice Hoffman's trademark writing style _ which for younger readers probably won't make all that much sense _ but which I love!
However during most of the novel, I found that there were one too many short and clipped sentences. Something that I am not crazy about. I found myself occasionally wondering if the author thought she would "lose" her readers, going full ~I am Queen of Metaphors~ style.
Then the character development is practically zero....which is something that the author normally does..to an extent, but in this case, with this story, and these characters, I didn't found that that worked.
Once again I am left with the feeling that the author may have underestimate her readers.
I have read complex and marvellous middle grade stories, and if I were to compare this book to those, I am afraid Nightbird would come out lacking.
Also that magical/ fairy tale vibe that Alice Hoffman uses to describes first love, is here, and its very insta..once again, something with which the author normally works, but in this case we're talking of a middle grade book.
Of course I have to mention that that part is not heavily handed, and that the characters in question are about seventeen years old. But even so, I wasn't crazy about it.
So why three stars?
The writing _ despite my complaints _is above average.
The concept of this story was really good, despite the fact that it ends being developed in a somewhat simplistic manner.
Finally and most importantly because this novel is very adamant about friendship. Especially girls friendship. And we don't have enough stories of those.
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