2016 Reading Challenge: "An autobiography"

The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a gripping and disturbing look into one person's childhood as part of a family involved in a polygamous religious sect.

I don't know what I expected when I went into this book. However, I did not expect it to be strictly of her childhood specifically ages 5-15. And I expected, for some reason, to have more of a look at the Sect community rather than just her one family.

The polygamy was almost secondary to the real story... that of a child facing a life mostly in severely poor economic situations, being relied upon by her mother to be the one to raise the ever increasing brood of children so that mom could go spend time with her husband and deal with her jealousy of the time the husband spent with his other wives. Then on top of being poor, living like an itinerant, she has to deal with being sexually molested by her step father starting at the age of 8 and when she gets the courage to tell her mother and one of the sister wives, she gets "are you sure?" When the wives confront step dad he gets apologetic and claims he won't do it again and the wives tell her and some of her step sisters that they just have to move on and forgive.

It's not until a series of tragedies and then learning that step dad is making moves on her direct siblings that she and her siblings finally have the courage to escape.



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2016 Reading Challenge: "A book over 600 pages"

Winter by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a fun and exciting ending to the Lunar Chronicles quadrilogy. I really enjoyed this installment and how it brought in the story of Snow White to the series.

I liked how we finally get a glimpse into what it's like to be a part of the Lunar kingdom and how there is such a huge dichotomy between the classes. I do admit that I felt a certain flash to The Hunger Games as far as the description of the Lunar Elite and the Elite in the Capital District of The Hungar Games, but I also recognize the fact that there are really only so many ways you can write ways to show how different it is between the Haves and Have-nots, and especially in YA books.

That being said, I thought the action was very well paced and the entire story moved and it was hard to think that this book was almost 900 pages (or 23.5 hours of audiobook). I found myself trying to find opportunities to get back to this book to see what was happening next.

Overall this is a series I highly recommend.



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