*****SPOILERS*****
Inconsistencies
Inconsistencies
in plot and character annoy me as much as mistaken punctuation and grammar.
Sometimes it’s only minor but it’s a surprise it slips past the editors.
The Aunts are looking after baby
squirrels. In the same sentence, Ethan calls them vermin but is concerned for
their health. The very point of the word ‘vermin’ is something that’s unwanted,
unhygienic and to be killed. So wanting them to be healthy strikes me as odd.
We learn that Ethan’s dead mother
would leave her books anywhere and use apple cores and dirty cutlery as book
marks. However, Ethan’s mother is made out to be someone who reveres books. Yet
she has disgusting, disrespectful behaviour to books? This is an inconsistency
with the character.
In the books conclusion, it’s 10pm.
There’s a continuous, contiguous conversations with no pauses. And yet the next
time the time’s mentioned, it’s 11:30pm. Not enough happened, not enough was
said, to account for these ninety minutes. Then to top this off, after this,
Ethan’s phone says it’s 11:25. So I have no idea what’s going on with the time.
My Culture Shock
I’m
British, so encountering my cultural differences with the US South was
entertaining.
They have chicken, mash and green
beans for dinner. Sounds lovely. But then with this they have biscuits.
Biscuits! For dinner! Over here, biscuits are sweet snacks that often get
dunked in tea. But with research I discovered this is the name the South gives
to scones.
I wrapped my head around that. But
when Ethan eats sweet potato covered in marshmallows? No. What’s next,
chocolate on top of roast potatoes? (You carry on doing you, America. Good for
you.)
The last one I’ll mention has
nothing to do with food but rather school. Ethan’s school day is eight hours
long with eight periods in a day. Here, our school days are about
six-and-a-half hours long; each period is an hour and the rest of the time is
for assembly, morning and afternoon registration, break and lunch. To fit or
that in, American periods must be really short. I’m surprised there’s enough
time to get between classes and actually get into school work.
Miscellaneous
There
are a few other things worth noting.
One of my favourite lines is: ‘Lena
smothered the giggles down into the folds of her robes.’ Amazing description.
Ethan’s aunts making up words whilst
playing Scrabble is my favourite scene. When I reread this book, I laugh before
I even start reading this part.
Marion snaps her umbrella shut.
Someone replies to her and she snaps it shut again. But when did she open it
again? This was a lapse of clarity.
The authors write that ‘Duchannes’,
Lena’s surname, has three syllables with the last being rolled: ‘Du-kay-yane’.
If it were rolled, the vowel sounds of the second and third syllable wouldn’t
be the same.
The way family trees are drawn in
the book are really weird and aren’t clear. Instead of the parents’ line (both
are in one box separated by a slash) going to all their children, it goes to
one child and the siblings are connected with a sideways line. But sideways
lines also connect to siblings-in-law.
No comments:
Post a Comment