Waves

This book reminds me of "The Lovely Bones". In that book, the narrator is dead. In this book we sometimes hear from a character in a coma. She is teenager Hal's older sister, who Hal found unconscious on the beach one morning. Hal sometimes hears his sister's voice in his mind? What happened to her? How can Hal find out? The answer is haunting, as is the book. I loved it!

I actually really like this one at the start. It was interesting, the characters were belivable. It really pulled me in and kept me eager for more. It started to fall apart after about a hundred pages though. The randomly shoved in thoughts between Charley and Hal were annoying and confusing and the story just started going all over the place. It really lacked focus for the second part of the book. It had potential but didn't impress me overall. Also, I'm not sure why they made such a big deal about the author knowing Philip Pullman. He's quoted on the front cover, talk about in an intro and then at the back we're told he taught her English. It was just silly and I feel that a book should be able to stand on its own without relying on show more the name of one famous author. Once would have been fine but they didn't need to mention him three times. show less

A former pupil of Philip Pullman, this is an accomplished and complex debut novel.
Charley is in a long-term coma after an accident on the beach in Cornwall. Reluctantly, her family returns to their Cornwall holiday home the following summer leaving her in hospital to try and resume some sort of normal life for her younger siblings Hal and Sara.
Hal, now 15, is drawn to find out what really happened the night she had her accident, and gets involved with the beach crowd who meet every evening to party. Eerily, he can sense Charley reaching out from her hospital bed in his mind which adds a slightly sinister dimension to the story.
Cutting between Charley and Hal's different points of view last summer and this, the story gradually unravels show more to its sad but satisfactory climax.
A challenging teen read, and satisfying for adults too. show less

This story of a boy trying to figure out what happened to his sister the previous summer started with an interesting idea, but much of the story gets lost among all the repetition (If you took all the "Hal! Where are you!"s out of the book you'd probably cut 10 pages). There are some touching scenes, but many of them were pretty contrived, too. I did keep reading to find out what had happened, but by the time I got to it I'd gotten so tired of the melodramatic voices in the wind that I didn't care all that much anymore. I wouldn't recommend this one, sorry.

Somewhat tedious in the middle, this book picks up at the end, when a young man comes back to knowing what he knew all along... that his sister was strong, in love and that sometimes accidents happen to the wrong people at the wrong time. One of the hardest parts of this book is when the family battles back and forth about taking a young, previously vital young woman off of life support. The family asks, "What would she have wanted?"

One of the best part of this book is the relationship between the young man and his younger sister. You gotta love a boy who is so sweet to his younger sister.

A haunting book. It had a good plot that kept me at the edge of my seat. Though a little long-winded, I'm impressed with how the story was put together. By the time I reached Part Three (the book was divided into three parts), I had to finish reading the rest in one sitting; I could not put it down!

Told in a series of flashbacks and switching perspectives, this is the story of a brother and his older sister, who now lies in a coma after a surfing accident. While trying to find out what happened the night of her accident, he learns more than he bargained for, but must keep seeking the truth, whatever the cost, to get her voice out of his head. More than a little repetitive, this book was more tedious and unending than enjoyable. The story might have been better without the whole literal voice-in-his-head subplot.