This book was really terrible. It read like a children's book, but it was in the adult section at my library. It was written too vaguely for a child to understand, so I suppose it was meant for adults, but oh man. Never read this. If you do, it will only take about ten minutes because it's very short, but you can never. Get. That. Time. Back.
Indigo is about two orphan boys who have a curious affinity for all things ocean-related. They're adopted, ironically, by a couple who lives in a landlocked town terrified of water. One day the boys decide to run away to the ocean with their friend Martha, but the town floods the day they leave, wreaking havoc on everything and eventually forcing them to go back home because Martha breaks her arm. The two boys then "save" the town by diving underwater and destroying the wall that is holding the water in. In doing so, they miraculously remember that their mother is a mermaid. Their adopted parents decide to move to the ocean, accepting that it is a part of who the boys are. And Martha's father, who has been seeing a heinous woman named Hildy since his wife died, decides to leave her and he goes from clinically depressed to sunshine and daisies happy in a matter of minutes.
This might seem an unnecessarily harsh summary, but the book is written in a very similar fashion. The true tragedy is that the story has all the potential to be awesome. If Hoffman had made this a novel or even a literary short story, she could have given it a depth and subtlety it decidedly lacks.
It is books like this that give me hope that my work will one day be published. The bar is obviously set very low.
Indigo is about two orphan boys who have a curious affinity for all things ocean-related. They're adopted, ironically, by a couple who lives in a landlocked town terrified of water. One day the boys decide to run away to the ocean with their friend Martha, but the town floods the day they leave, wreaking havoc on everything and eventually forcing them to go back home because Martha breaks her arm. The two boys then "save" the town by diving underwater and destroying the wall that is holding the water in. In doing so, they miraculously remember that their mother is a mermaid. Their adopted parents decide to move to the ocean, accepting that it is a part of who the boys are. And Martha's father, who has been seeing a heinous woman named Hildy since his wife died, decides to leave her and he goes from clinically depressed to sunshine and daisies happy in a matter of minutes.
This might seem an unnecessarily harsh summary, but the book is written in a very similar fashion. The true tragedy is that the story has all the potential to be awesome. If Hoffman had made this a novel or even a literary short story, she could have given it a depth and subtlety it decidedly lacks.
It is books like this that give me hope that my work will one day be published. The bar is obviously set very low.
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