S. D. Smith’s The Green Ember (The Green Ember #1)
Description
Young rabbits, Heather and Picket, were raised in the peaceful fields of Nick Hollow, but their parents can only delay the inevitable.
The East Wood – their father’s homeland, and the place Heather and Picket may never go – the young rabbit’s knowledge of it is limited to warnings and bits of dropped conversation surrounded in fear and sorrow. And when the boogeyman comes knocking, quick decisions must be made.
Thrown headlong into a conflict that has long been brewing, the two must quickly mourn loss, find their feet, and learn to survive. Amidst it all, what will they discover about themselves, about their family, and about the mysterious East Wood?
Disclosure
I personally bought this book. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.
Review – Spoiler Free
The kids and I read this with a small book club. I had previously heard good things about it in homeschool circles, and was excited to check it out.
Since the story follows Heather and Picket as they are thrown into a new situation, the reader is flying blind with them – meeting characters and traveling to locations as they do. I loved a lot of the characters, but also wanted more about them … more of their history, more of their actions, more of who they were. Picket had one of the most fleshed out character arcs as he struggled with anger and sorrow, it made him a little angsty and off-putting (and needed some explanation for our young kids), but it fell in perfectly with the story and what the reader knows of him.
There were quite a few surprises tucked into this story, and you can really feel it building to the next book. Some things were easy to guess at, some were completely unexpected, and some are still just hints of things that may reveal further into the series.
A few chapters in, the pace picks up and doesn’t slow down for about 1/3 of the book, then the end picks up again to that same quick-moving, hard-hitting feeling; leaving a slow chunk in the middle for story development, history reveals, and character connection. This made the overall pacing a little off, I love hard and fast action, but it felt like it hit too quick and went too long. The reader meets the rabbit family and is just getting to know them and their dynamic, when things jump off the deep end and the story whisks away before the reader can get invested. Then, when the pace finally slows, readers are faced with information dumps, that do feel natural to the story as things that were explained to the young rabbits, but are also filled with a lot of questions answered in the worst way: we won’t answer that question … but we will … eventually.”
The pacing of the beginning and middle was especially difficult for us because it was hard for our kids to get into the story. By the end though, when they finally connected to and cared for the rabbits, it was easy to blaze right through.
Something to note is that this story is violence heavy. There isn’t a lot of visible bloodshed, but the finger print of it is everywhere. Combat scenes are written with wonderful detail that is easy to picture and follow, but is also long. Had I known how heavy handed it was with this, I would have waited longer to read this with the kids.
Overall, I liked The Green Ember. If the pacing was cleaned up, the kids would have connected with it sooner, and we probably would be jumping into book 2, but as it is we probably won’t continue. The kids, while having enjoyed the story by the end, are looking to move onto something else. I may go on and finish the series out on my own, but it’s nowhere near the top of my TBR list.
I would recommend this to people who want action heavy books with an unanswered, underlying mystery, who enjoy coming-of-age stories.
Quote
Farewell, wherever you go off to. May you find friends aplenty and of foes find few.
Heather Longtreader (The Green Ember, S. D. Smith)
Ratings
- Quality of Writing – 3
- Plot – 3
- World Building – 3
- Characters – 3
- Ease of Reading – 4
- Pictures/ Illustrations – 3
- Appropriate for Intended Age – 4
- Overall Enjoyment – 3
- Final Rating – 3.5 (Actual: 3.3) – Liked It/Really Liked It
Want to learn more about the numbers I use for rating, and the qualities I’m thinking about when writing a book review? Check out my post How I Rate and Review.