I've read all of Gold's books taking place in the "Bear-niverse" (for lack of a better term), but so far haven't checked out the other stand-alone novels by her, Turtle Moon and The Last Whale. So why not do that now? My library thankfully has copies. Spoilers ahead.
Silver is a girl who feels inadequate because her parents are unhappy that they could never have a second child. Then suddenly her father gets a job in Costa Rica to paint turtles at a wildlife sanctuary. Silver's family travels there, and soon Silver starts to connect with the turtles there, while her parents remain a bit distant. When Silver discovers a rare turtle laying eggs on the beach, it becomes the mission of her and her new friend Rafi to protect the eggs from poachers.
Another solid book by Gold. I really enjoyed it. I do have to preface this by the fact that I'm not as much of a marine-animal person as I am a land-mammal person, so books like The Last Bear and The Lone Husky do have more of an appeal factor to me than one about turtles.
But for what it is, yeah, this was good! Silver is a character I connected with quite fast, and I liked seeing her develop over the course of the story, especially seeing how she becomes very passionate about saving the turtles. Her developing friendship with Rafi is also very nice, they were a good team together.
The subplot of Silver's parents finding new hope and meaning in their lives and overcoming their grief was also nicely handled and tied in neatly with Silver finding her own new purpose in saving the turtles. I also liked how it wasn't a totally linear process for the parent characters, they weren't instantly healed by spending time at the sanctuary. It took quite a bit of time for them to find their footing and finally find a new purpose, especially Silver's mother.
If I do have a question regarding this book, it is, however, why Silver's parents never consider adoption an option. It's very clear that they want a second child after Silver and are unable to conceive. Which is depressing and I totally get them grieving over this. But the fact that adoption is a thing is just...flat out never even brought up. It'd have been one thing for them to be like "We want a new child that's biologically ours", but this is never specified. Just that they want a second child. I know that adoption is a long and complicated process, but it could've at least been brought up as an option for Silver's parents. But the story just completely ignores this for a reason I can't really understand.
Oh well, it's still an effective and emotional read. Save the turtles!
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment