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For your Friday I end my week of Kelly Kay Bowles reviews with her YA novel. This is a book that is on Kindle Unlimited so that you can pick it up today! She also sent me a free copy herself, and I was pleased as punch to get it. Also, Kelley sent me some of the audiobooks to listen to, and she has a beautiful voice so you may want to pick up the Audible as well.
Let’s go into the first impressions of this story. Unlike other YA novels I’ve read this year, this one is about real life. Though our heroine believes in some extra powers, the most important thing about the story is her authentic ability to be strong of character when others falter.
As a side note, the novel made me cry about half-of-a-dozen times. I don’t mean small tiny cries either, and I’m talking choking bubbling sobs. My heart utterly shattered with the MC’s mother’s situation. I couldn’t help but cry with the life story of the best friend of the MC’s. As a warning, if you feel any emotional triggers from self-harm or sexual abuse of any kind, be aware of it in this book. I don’t have emotional triggers like that, but it makes me very sad to read some of these topics, and I felt that I should give a warning just as a notice to anyone who may need it.
Let’s go into some critiques for “Down in the Belly of the Whale.” First, in the “Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation” portion of my scoring I want to point out has to do with random italics. Italics by nature should be used sparingly. When mixed with regular text, it can bend the eye and cause eye strain.
The other issue in “Story Structure, Foundation, and Presentation” portion of my scoring has to do with ellipses used in odd ways. I didn’t notice this as much with the previous two books; maybe I just missed it. However in “Down in the Belly of the Whale” I noticed a lot of odd use of the ellipsis. In some cases, a comma could have been used, or even a semi-colon. In a couple of cases, proper use of em-dash might have been a better choice. These are minor critiques though, and I only really point it out to those of you who are readers who are of the “Punctuation must be perfection” camp. Honestly, it didn’t take from the story, and it didn’t burst my immersion to see the ellipsis used as it was.
Now let’s rave about what I loved in “Down in the Belly of the Whale.” Can I start with the use of space between paragraphs done so well?! I was pleased as punch to see that space was used between sections, that the justified margins didn’t make the broke puzzle piece look come, and most importantly, that on default settings this book read more relaxed. Aside from the italics, this was one of the most leisurely reads I’ve had in a long time in a default setting. Whoever worked on the e-copy of the book needs to have a steak dinner presented to them on fine china, with all of the fixings. My goodness!
Secondly, though the subject matter is somber and intense at times, I felt the portrayal of the teenagers was accurate. Sometimes you read YA, and it’s obvious an adult wrote it, someone, who hasn’t seen the inside of a high school since they were attending. That’s not the case with “Down in the Belly of the Whale.” I totally could see that the MC was a teenager; she had teenaged anxiety and issues and was dealing with her life as a teenager.
Next, the tension was beautiful when we talk about character created tension in a dynamic scene. There is one part with a confrontation, that was executed beautifully, and I truly felt that the anxiety of the stage was done well. I loved the way the event played out, and what real-world stakes were involved with each character.
Finally, I want to point out my love for Kelley Kay Bowles ability to write character accents. She is someone I can trust to add a bit of southern charm in a story. As a Texas gal, this was much appreciated. Even though it's used in the story came from two different characters, I felt it was done with taste. I didn’t once think that it was overpowering in any way either. Compared to her previous two books, the southern accent writing has come a long way, and she deserves a big hug for the work she’s done. I was impressed. I have read Southern Accents in writing (mostly in comics) for most of my life. This was charming, and I look forward to it in future tales of hers.
Score
With all of this in mind and my math taken into consideration “Down in the Belly of the Whale” has scored a beautiful 95/100 which is a five-star review on Goodreads and Amazon.com. Buy the book for any YA fans, or anyone who loves a decent melancholy contemporary experience.
See you next week my friends for more reviews, and have the best weekend ever!
