I've received a few more wonderful reviews for The Color of Thunder! Reviews are absolutely essential for any writer's success. If you are interested in reading my novel and posting an honest review, please let me know and I'll send you a copy. If you are an author and would like to trade books and reviews, I'm definitely interested in that. Leave me a comment here and let me know.
Lovingly and Thoughtfully Written, June 23, 2013
By
gloria piper (ORLAND, CA, US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Color of Thunder (Paperback)
The title is beautiful and holds a promise of a beautifully written story. Chapter One opens with a description of setting so charmingly presented, I was immediately drawn in. The story follows a family's life in Mississippi from 1946 to 1965 as told in first person by Faith Linsey.
Her daddy is a Baptist minister with a huge following. His devotees see him as almost God. But Faith discovers a terrible secret that lowers him in her esteem, and she dares tell no one.
Wing builds character so well that she shows the reader what kind of man Faith's father is. The community and radio audience see him as perfect, but we see him as the distant old-fashioned head of the family where sons are cherished and women are expected to serve. The minister cannot stand his daughter Grace, who is sickly, or Hope, who is rebellious. Faith, as the elder daughter, works alongside Mama without a thought of childhood pleasures.
We watch a family evolve in a world where black neighborhoods hang on the periphery and are hardly worth a nod of acknowledgement. Description creates atmosphere that can strike us with keen nostalgia. Wing's detailing of a dinner of home-fried chicken with gravy-smothered mashed potatoes had me yearning for that meal of my childhood.
Detail is so rich that sometimes it's overdone, causing a slow-paced novel to drag when the ordinary is minutely displayed. At times I wondered what it added to the story. In fact before Chapter 4, I was wondering where the story was going.
Early on, I was nearly overwhelmed with character names. Later, I realized these individuals, whom we never hear from again, are used to give a sense of community in which the family lives. Or they influence the development of our family characters. Therefore, the names to remember are only those of family or those outsiders involved in major events that affect Faith. Wing helps us remember.
The mundane detail of most of this novel creates a contrast with the tragedies that strike, thus accentuating them. We pick our favorite characters and see how the times affect them. And those incidents that stick with Faith also stick with us.
Her daddy is a Baptist minister with a huge following. His devotees see him as almost God. But Faith discovers a terrible secret that lowers him in her esteem, and she dares tell no one.
Wing builds character so well that she shows the reader what kind of man Faith's father is. The community and radio audience see him as perfect, but we see him as the distant old-fashioned head of the family where sons are cherished and women are expected to serve. The minister cannot stand his daughter Grace, who is sickly, or Hope, who is rebellious. Faith, as the elder daughter, works alongside Mama without a thought of childhood pleasures.
We watch a family evolve in a world where black neighborhoods hang on the periphery and are hardly worth a nod of acknowledgement. Description creates atmosphere that can strike us with keen nostalgia. Wing's detailing of a dinner of home-fried chicken with gravy-smothered mashed potatoes had me yearning for that meal of my childhood.
Detail is so rich that sometimes it's overdone, causing a slow-paced novel to drag when the ordinary is minutely displayed. At times I wondered what it added to the story. In fact before Chapter 4, I was wondering where the story was going.
Early on, I was nearly overwhelmed with character names. Later, I realized these individuals, whom we never hear from again, are used to give a sense of community in which the family lives. Or they influence the development of our family characters. Therefore, the names to remember are only those of family or those outsiders involved in major events that affect Faith. Wing helps us remember.
The mundane detail of most of this novel creates a contrast with the tragedies that strike, thus accentuating them. We pick our favorite characters and see how the times affect them. And those incidents that stick with Faith also stick with us.
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Of Race and Religion, July 22, 2013
By
David Spencer "David Spencer" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Color of Thunder (Kindle Edition)
Taboo subjects are often the fuel that powers a strong, thought-provoking story, and no two subjects are as divisive in America today than race and religion, which are both tackled, and adeptly, in J.C. Wing's The Color of Thunder.
The story follows Faith Linsey and her life in America's south during the post-war/pre-Civil Rights era. Tragedy, revelation, and even death, raise questions for Faith about the people she knows and the God she trusts.
Throughout TCOT the writing is consistently and effortlessly beautiful, and features an almost biographical level of detail.
The Color of Thunder is a strong debut and promises great things from J.C. Wing.
The story follows Faith Linsey and her life in America's south during the post-war/pre-Civil Rights era. Tragedy, revelation, and even death, raise questions for Faith about the people she knows and the God she trusts.
Throughout TCOT the writing is consistently and effortlessly beautiful, and features an almost biographical level of detail.
The Color of Thunder is a strong debut and promises great things from J.C. Wing.
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Wonderfully written!!, May 8, 2013
This review is from: The Color of Thunder (Paperback)
As a reader of mystery/suspense/action I was not sure if the theme of this book would keep me interested...I was 100% wrong! J.C Wing is a wonderfully descriptive writer. I felt as though I was a secret member of the Linsey family. Not only could I see, smell and feel all of the things Faith experienced, I learned about life of a southern family and the issues facing society at a turbulent time in history. The Color of Thunder kept my attention from the first page to the very last!
