Review: Kollected

Kollected by J.S. Welles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I confess I was a bit hesitant to pick this book up. The front cover reminded me too much of the dystopian novels that my oldest son has been reading. He loves them, but I’m a bit weary of that particular storyline.

However, the first sentence, caught my eye. It was well-written, with a description that indicated that the author knew her way around words. Okay, I thought, I’ll give it a go.

I really enjoyed this book. Writing was smooth, the characters memorable, and the conflicts (yeah, a little clichéd) tense enough that I buzzed through the book in a morning.

The story takes place in the community of Bitterfield where children are expected to abide by the rules, remain within the community, and not venture outside the expected norm. Into the setting J.S. Welles places the non-conforming siblings Petra and Mathias. It would be easy to create protagonists who simply rebel for the sake of rebelling, but J.S. Welles is careful to add another dimension to these two. Yes, they want change and they are unhappy with their situation, but they also love their parents and respect their community. Their internal conflict really drives the story and is handled very well. I really empathised with them.

The external conflict of the story is less satisfying. From the very beginning, the author dangles a disturbing, nightmarish carrot in front of her reader, but isn’t quite given enough of a nibble to satisfy. I don’t mind mystery in a novel, and as there are two more books planned after this one, I expected there to be lots of unanswered questions, but without a single ‘Aha!’ moment in this book I found myself quietly dissatisfied at the end. I felt that while the narrative arc of the personal conflicts of Petra and Matthias were very good, the narrative arc of the overall story (which will take place over three books) didn’t take me far enough along the curve.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

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The Benefits of Reading Out loud

Last night was my writing groups' first annual Meet the Author's night in Dundas, Ontario. We had begun planning this in November. Everyone worked their socks off and I'm thrilled to say that we had a full house at the Dundas Little Theatre!

Getting ready to read from 'Six'

I was terrified, of course. Writing is a solitary profession, but the truth is that unless a writer is willing and able to share her work publicly, its unlikely she'll ever sell a book. I made a point of preparing... but not too much. I've found that if I over-prepare, I lose any freshness I might have (difficult, when you consider a novel can take years of writing and rewriting to get it right). I'm lucky in that I actually enjoy public speaking, and there's nothing better than hearing an audience laugh when you intended them too, or feeling them fall silent when you read an emotional piece.

I'm a newcomer to my community, but I made some new friends last night, and some new fans. For that, I am grateful. Thanks to my talented fellow writers, and my wonderful new home, I feel I'm settling in to the place I was always meant to be.