Tag: Firefly-Lane • BookLikes

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review 2018-05-24 00:00

I’ve read through lots of reviews of Kristin Hannah’s, Firefly Lane, and found some truth in all. It’s not usually my kind of book, but I took a chance. I’m glad I did. I don’t review what the book is about, that’s what the back cover does. My review is of the writing.
Is it cliché? Yes, but what story isn’t? Whether a book is about romance, friendship, war or peace, its all been done before. It’s all in how you mix the details. As a writer myself, I’ve always been told you’ve got to keep piling the troubles on to keep the reader interested. And, while that is true to keep a story going, I think you have to have triumphs mixed in there too. Get the characters some rewards along the way, but with the whisper of troubles ahead. Ms Hannah does this skillfully. I think that is why some people found this such a great story. Lives have ups and downs, that’s how the tale of them should go.
I didn’t expect the climactic last four chapters or so. Something I myself have lived through. While painful to recall, they were very accurate and sad.
It’s a thick book, but when you’re covering 30 years what do you expect? While I don’t have a small fraction of Ms Hannah’s fans, I can clearly see why they love her writing. This turned out to be a great read and I give it my highest recommendation.

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review 2016-10-30 03:23

Sailing in a Sea of Words

Book: Firefly Lane

Author: Kristin Hannah

Genre: Fiction/Friendship/Growing Up

Summary (from back of St. Martin's Griffin edition): In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all-beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed forever to be uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's maginificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship-jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.- 2008, St. Martin's Griffin.

review 2013-09-21 16:52

Butterfly Lane

Litchick's Hit List

I really liked this book. I liked it for all the same reasons that I loved its predecessor but I also liked it for its differences.

I wish more people wrote like Haddix does. I swear she could probably take a book I hated and re-write it into something I’d sigh contentedly over. There’s just something so effortless about her styling and characterization. Everything seems to develop organically, nothing feels forced or contrived.

This book follows Firefly Hollow but the main characters have changed a little. Instead of Sarah and Owen (nom nom nom nom) we follow the story of one of their sons, John, and the woman he’s to marry, Zanny, short for Suzanna.

They first meet when John is just nine and from there you watch them grow up, see John notice Zanny as more than just his kid sister’s best friend and witness their budding romance. You’re also witness to their relationship’s near collapse and their struggle is what takes up a majority of Butterfly Lane.

This story was a much more emotional journey for me than Firefly Hollow. While reading the first book I pretty much had the stupidest grin imaginable plastered on my face for 75% of it. Not so much this time around. I was up and down and happy and sad and even pissed at times but you know what? I enjoyed every second of it because at the heart of everything there was a realness to John and Zanny's relationship that really struck a chord within me.

No one is perfect in real life and too many times in literature readers are subjected to a fairy tale ideal of romance or worse, drama for drama’s sake. Not in this book. This isn’t a fairy tale. It’s also not filled with childish relationship drama. This is a realistic portrayal of what marriage can be like. Spoiler Alert: It can be hard. There can be serious miscommunications. It requires compromise and compassion and understanding and empathy and most importantly communication.

Not only do you get a look at John and Zanny’s relationship but the Campbell clan and all their various interactions play a large part in this book as well. You get hints here and there of what’s going on in the other lives of the Campbell children and I can already see (I HOPE!) the spin offs of the rest of the series and cannot frigging wait for them!

Also, can I just say I have no idea what they’re feeding the men in rural Kentucky but whatever it is, the Campbell boys got an extra few doses of the good stuff. There is just something so swoonworthy about them. Especially Owen (nom nom nom nom), who, like a fine wine, only seems to get better with age.

I’m not going to lie, there was a time or two while reading this that I wanted to murder his son John as well as slap Zanny upside the head but that eyetwitching angst Haddix made me feel was TOTALLY worth it because when the two of them finally get their shit together?

This book is a beautiful story about family, love and life. It’s about growing up, about things not always going to plan, trying to make the best of the hand you’re dealt and working hard for what you really want and who you really love.

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review 2013-09-20 22:21

silverneurotic

This was the first book I read by Kristin Hannah and I probably would not have, had I not received an advanced copy of Fly Away, the sequel to Firefly Lane. I’m not sure why I had been so hesitant to pick up one of Hannah’s books previously, I had noticed that they started appearing on bookshelves just about everywhere, but up until now, I had been avoiding reading her. I am very glad that I finally had the opportunity (and excuse) to finally buy into the hype she has been generating.

I loved Firefly Lane. As soon as I downloaded this to my Kindle, I started reading it…intending to just read the first chapter or so. Instead I found myself obsessively reading throughout the day/night stopping only to give birth to this blog.

Firefly Lane reminds me so much of one of my favorite novels, Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters. Maybe it’s the setting, or the fact that Kate and Tully reminded me of Vix and Caitlin…but I could not help but draw out the comparisons as I read. However, as I drew further into the book I realized that Firefly Lane was so much more than Summer Sisters ever was (sorry Ms. Blume). While Summer Sisters focused so much about men and sex as the book progressed and Vix and Caitlin grew up, Firefly Lane truly stayed true to being a book about friendship. And unlike Summer Sisters, we were privy to both sides of the story, not just the one. It felt a lot more intimate to know both Tully and Kate.

My only complaint about Firefly Lane was the fact that Kate’s parents were known as Mom and Dad throughout the book. For some reason, it annoyed me. It perhaps would have been okay had the story been told in first person, but it was not. I found it to be a weird distraction. Thinking back, I can hazard a guess as to why Hannah choose to refer to them this way…but at the time it annoyed me.

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review 2013-06-25 00:00

Firefly Lane

trewen

AUDIOWay too long and the characters weren't all that likable.