Overview
Hi! I got this from Net Galley Read Now a while back and I
really enjoyed it. I didn’t fully understand that this novel was in verse until
after I started it, but I was enjoying the story, and so I wanted to finish to
see where it would go. This was my first time reading a book in this style, and
I want to look into it more because I think I would enjoy it. Read on to see my
thoughts. There is an author’s note at the end of the book which reveals that
this was inspired by the author's family and I loved that.
Goodreads Info
Title: Call Me Athena: A Girl from Detroit
Author: Colby Cedar Smith
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction
Expected Publication: August 17th, 2021 by Andrews
McMeel Publishing
Rating: 4 stars
Add to Goodreads: here
What I enjoyed
Characters
One of my favorite things about this story was the
characters. They were well crafted and well developed. The main character is
Mary just wants to live her own life and make her own choices for herself,
not because she is Greek, and should be a good Greek daughter like her parents
want her to be. Mary was my favorite character in this story and it was so much
fun reading the story from her point of view. I also really enjoyed Mary’s
parents, especially the scenes in the book set in the past, because you got to
see how their romance blossomed over the year from the time they met to now.
They both grew as people. You can see the growth in the chapters in the past,
and I loved that they came back to each other in the end. I enjoyed the minor
characters in the story as well, I just wish that we could have spent more time
with them to find out more of a backstory for them. I knew from early in the
story that the characters would be a star in my review.
Plot
The plot is something that can make or break a book for me, as
I’m sure this is the case with most readers. The plot in this book can be seen as
simple because it just tells the story about a family in the 1930s Detroit, and
the story starts in the past in 1915 and goes through 1918. One of my favorite
things about the plot was how simple it was, because it was the story of a family,
and that is what I wanted to hear. Letters are woven into the past sections of
the story, and it is lovely to see how Mary’s parents, Gio and Jeanne, went
from not knowing each other to finding love. Mary’s storyline is great to read
as well because you see that she’s just a girl who wants to live her life on
her terms and no one else’s. It’s a part of the part and the story that Mary
fights for what she wants and I loved that. The headings at the top of the
pages make it easy to figure out where you are in the story by having the
character’s name, and the year at the top. From early on there was definitely
going to be a star in my review for the plot because I really loved how the
plot brought both timelines together.
Writing
Writing is another thing that can make or break a book for
me. The writing in this book was beautiful and it matched the story perfectly.
With a story this simple, the writing really needs to drive the story, and the
poetic writing does. This is a story in verse, but there is no rhyming in the
story, and I believe this is what makes the story easier to read. As I said at
the start, I had not read a book of this style before, and I loved this style
so much. I loved the writing and how it
enhanced and didn’t take away from the story, so I knew that I would need to
add a star for the writing in my review.
Enjoyment
I always enjoy adding an enjoyment section to my views
because I do very much enjoy the E-ARCs I read. This book was no different
because I loved the characters and I loved the story that was going on in this
novel. This book has some tense scenes, but there are also some light-hearted
moments woven between the serious tones. I add a star for enjoyment to most
books because I believe that those should be factored into reviews.
What could have been
better
Pace
The more I read the more I notice that I really need a book
to have a steady pace throughout, or I will not really enjoy the story as much
as I could. With this novel, sometimes in the past that could have been
paced better. There are some sections that are longer than they should be, and
there are some sections that could have been longer. The longer sections take
you out of the story, and I zoned out as I was reading these
sections. Counter to that, the ending sections in the past could have been
longer because it seemed like these were rushed in order to finish the story
that Smith wanted to tell. The pace of these sections and some of the sections
with Mary are why this book was not a five-star read for me.
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