My Take on Daisy Chain
February 27, 2009
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Zondervan (March 1, 2009)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mary E. DeMuth is an expert in Pioneer Parenting. She enables Christian parents to navigate our changing culture when their families left no good faith examples to follow.
Her parenting books include Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture (Harvest House, 2007), Building the Christian Family You Never Had (WaterBrook, 2006), and Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God (Harvest House, 2005).
Mary also inspires people to face their trials through her real-to-life novels, Watching The Tree Limbs
(nominated for a Christy Award) and Wishing On Dandelions (NavPress, 2006).
Mary has spoken at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, the ACFW Conference, the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, and at various churches and church planting ministries. Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France, and planting a church.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The abrupt disappearance of young Daisy Chance from a small Texas town in 1973 spins three lives out of control—Jed, whose guilt over not protecting his friend Daisy strangles him; Emory Chance, who blames her own choices for her daughter’s demise; and Ouisie Pepper, who is plagued by headaches while pierced by the shattered pieces of a family in crisis.
In this first book in the Defiance, Texas Trilogy, fourteen-year-old Jed Pepper has a sickening secret: He’s convinced it’s his fault his best friend Daisy went missing. Jed’s pain sends him on a quest for answers to mysteries woven through the fabric of his own life and the lives of the families of Defiance, Texas. When he finally confronts the terrible truths he’s been denying all his life, Jed must choose between rebellion and love, anger and freedom.
Daisy Chain is an achingly beautiful southern coming-of-age story crafted by a bright new literary talent. It offers a haunting yet hopeful backdrop for human depravity and beauty, for terrible secrets and God’s surprising redemption.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Daisy Chain, go HERE
Sally Says:
This is a hard review to write. In fact, I went to a number of other CFBA blogs to see what others thought about the book.
First, I loved Mary DeMuth’s debut series, Watching the Tree Limbs and Wishing on Dandelions. Mary’s a talented writer who doesn’t shy away from the painful parts of life but uses them to point the reader to hope.
And in Daisy Chain those painful bits of life are here again. Jed Pepper, the book’s hero, is the son of a pastor who is brutal to his children and wife. As I read, I found myself getting very angry with Jed’s dad and reading faster and faster, just waiting for someone to catch Hap in his violence and rescue his family. I found myself getting angry with his wife for letting it continue. And I found myself angry with the church members who fell for Hap’s hypocrisy.
And then of course there’s the question of what happened to Jed’s friend Daisy. Jed feels responsible for her disappearance since he didn’t see her safely home the evening she vanished.
What bothered me about the story was the way the book ended. I knew this was the first in a trilogy, but I didn’t expect to reach the end of the book without a single plot question answered. Not one! I actually went back and reread a few pages, thinking I’d read too fast and missed something.
That being said, Daisy Chain is still a great book. Mary has a melodic way with words. She knows how to create real people out of nothing more than letters, and I will be reading the second (and probably third) book to find out what happens.
But I do wish something had been resolved at the end of the book. I wish we hadn’t been left hanging as badly as we were.
So do I recommend you read Daisy Chain? I do. Just take a deep breath and be prepared to wait a few months to find out what comes next.
Comments
6 Responses to “My Take on Daisy Chain”
I love your reviews! They’re so honest–which translates to helpful. I’m afraid a lot of other reviews I read are simply cheerleading.
I am also glad there is a second and third book. The end doesn’t bother me though. I still felt hope in the end, which is what I always “hope” for when I read a book by a Christian author, but even more so with Mary DeMuth. You are so right about how Mary points readers to hope and how she creates characters out of nothing but letters. I can’t wait for the next book!
I’d love to hear what the rest of you think/feel about a novel that makes you wait for the next book.
Does it bug you like it obviously does me? Or do you eagerly X off each day on a calendar?
I mentioned on my blog that a major story thread is left unresolved. I think had I known that up front it wouldn’t have bothered me because the story was thoroughly enjoyable otherwise. That said, I had to take a deep breath at the end. It was definitely worth it, but I wish I’d been warned.
(Sally, I did a post on this today.)
Writers are the worst critics, and they certainly see the things in writing stories that the “average” reader misses every time. It’s the training we receive, the “necessities” pounded on by the professionals, even when they know the best writers simply use these things as guidelines.
However, as writers and avid readers, we develop specific tastes and admire certain styles and techniques in the storytelling craft.
I was disappointed in the ending of this book. To be taken back to Chapter One at the end of the novel felt like a gimmick.
Personally, as a reader, I hate cliffhangers with a passion, and as a reviewer, I had a very similar reaction to the book. She’s a good writer and uses imagery well to create a feeling of hopefulness even though the events/plot of the book itself only provide reasons to be hopping mad. I was a little concerned about the difficult-to-strike balance between shining light on the dark, and focusing on it to the exclusion of the the light of truth, but it is only the first book. (IE focusing on what gets broken without much hint to what not broken looks like, which I find ironic, because I recall seeing a nonfiction title along those lines in the author’s bio.)
BTW, the “come full circle” ending is a classic and valid way to end a story that works well in stories like this one to provide a sense of catharsis/peace.