It's a Keeper.

Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent novel for young readers. I purchased it for my 10 yo son and, as I am wont to do, read it before he did. I am looking forward to discussing it with him, once he reads it as well. The characters are engaging, if a little lacking in depth - but given the premis of the novel, depth is hardly to be expected in either the female or male protagonists. I hope some depth will develop over the series - a parallel density of characterisation and experience. I think we have more to learn about the other keepers as well. Overall the concepts and the world are plausible, and there are useful analogies for 'helicopter parents' and those who hold the guard chains on their children with varying degrees of laxity. I look forward to further exploration of this world.

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Nobody's Child

Child of Mine by Judy Mollen Walters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The premis of this story is compelling. The inherent unfairness of human procreation - those who can, those who can't, those who should not ... Those who do, anyway. None of it is easy. The author captures some of that in her work. The lead female protagonist, in her desire to have a child, faces many challenges - not the least, finding out her own creation story. The book is good, and it is a solid treatment of a difficult subject. The novel avoids melodrama, but also fails to capture the depth of what are, ultimately, very primal emotions surrounding identity. It steers a fairly even middle ground. The characterisations are adequate, but I couldn't feel enough empathy or sympathy for any of them - even the central female protagonist was sketched, rather than drawn out, and her husband was not as well developed as he should have been. He was less of an equal partner, more of a vessel, almost an afterthought. The novel fell short of adequately capturing the strain of infertility on a couple - there was too much story and not enough feeling. There was just too much going on for enough attention to be paid to the little things that define a relationship. A good read, and a solid treatment of a difficult subject, but I didn't feel close to any of the characters - or affected by their reality. I would have liked some depth. All in all, though, a very good first novel from a promising author. Easy to read and hard to put down. I look forward to Ms Walters' next offering.

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First Timers

Well, this is my first entry. It feels quite solipsistic to be commencing a blog, but I am focusing on the self-development aspects of exercising my creativity. Not so much the self indulgent ones. Yes, I know that is a fragment, and not a real sentence. This is a blog, not a masterpiece. Lets just see how we go. My first challenge is getting my Goodreads reviews to actually appear here ... A work in progress!