Radiant and charming and sweet, though I do wish there had been a little more follow-through on the angel thread. ( )

While I liked her Dust Lands series and characters, this book missed the mark, at least for me. It is a complicated tale of magical realism. Davy David is a harmless young teenage orphan, living day to day, in a small town, drawing angels with his brooms. The local pastor is a bad guy, and decides to get rid of Davy when Davy accidentally discovers the pastor's infidelity. There is also a child catcher in town (think Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.) Davy has a few friends in town, like the local librarian and theater owner. In recovering a lost ball for some kids on the grounds of an abandoned museum, Davy meets a dying old lady, whom everyone thinks is a witch. She takes a shine to him and offers Davy more money than he has ever seen, to drive her home to die on her 80th birthday on Christmas. The two are joined by Davy's stray dog. Their trip is marked with much adventure ... and magic, as the old lady seems to become more alive and young along the way to the ending.
( )

It's been a while since I've read a book for younger readers, but this one was so unlike the ones I'm used to seeing in these books. There was so much more depth in this story! And while I didn't exactly cry, by the end of the book, there was this nice little silence and peace in my head. Everything in this book just...sat really well with me. I liked it!

Kinda sweet, kinda sad...it's a nice little read. ( )

A lovely and sad book with interesting characters. I can't really decide what age I would recommend this to though. It's intended for middle grade readers but I'm not convinced they would enjoy it. It's one of those stories you either love or hate. ( )

A frustrating blend of lovely and incompetent writing (whether through ignorance, or deliberate bad choices, it's hard to tell).

Others have sung its praises, so I'll focus on what bothered me.

Unbelievable, inconsistent characters, who don't behave the way humans behave. This is sometimes acceptable (say, in a fairy tale, or very stylized picture book) but in a novel I expect some semblance of reality. Almost every single character, no matter how big or small, ended up overacting to some extent.

Unbelievable, unacceptable plot contrivances, like a 13 year old who has never driven before (or even been in a car, given his circumstances) magically knowing how to drive a motorcycle, for God's sake.

Unnecessary, pointless, unexplained passages--the first 70 pages is essentially filler--just such a waste.

This irritated me to no end. It felt like the author was aiming for some beautifully-written touching evocation of Peter S. Beagle and Ray Bradbury, and they got the Smaller Dumpling Amateur Theatrical Society's presentation of the director's 8 year old's dramatization of War and Peace instead. It's just so far off the mark.

(I was this close to stopping reading, but I had to wonder if anything paid off eventually--maybe the main character, say, turned out to be in a video game and that's why he could magically do everything, and why the NPCs were so unconvincing, etc., but no.)

Not for me.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). ( )