Title: Distant Waves
Author: Suzanne Weyn
Rating: DNF
This is the synopsis on the back of the book. I've owned this book for years, picked up for a couple dollars at a used book store, but haven't actually picked it up to read until now…
The book is absolutely nothing like the description. Nothing. And although the Goodreads description is a little more accurate, it's not by much. I mean, it even says it is "a novel of the Titanic". But it wasn't. Also, there are five sisters. The description says four. (Okay, unless one just didn't embark on the "journey of her life". I didn't finish, so I wouldn't know.)
The book is told from the point-of-view of the second daughter, Jane. It starts with some back story, when she a young child, and watching her mother contact a spirit for the first time. Recently widowed and pregnant, the mother moves her four daughters to a place called Spirit Vale, full of spirit mediums, where she can practice her "gift" without being judged. On the way there, they meet the famous Nikola Tesla, when they get caught in an earthquake he created with some machine he built. They continue on their way, but this creates in Jane what is an almost unhealthy obsession with Tesla. For the next ten years, she continues to collect every article, newspaper clipping, and story she can find about Tesla.
Her older sister, Mimi, is skeptical of their mother's "abilities". As the story goes on, more and more proof appears that their mother is faking more than is real. Mimi wants to get out of Spirit Vale. Eventually, something happens that triggers the last straw. Jane, wanting to enter a journalist contest, wants to interview Tesla, and they two girls head to New York.
This is about where I stopped reading. Now, let's get this straight: the story isn't bad. But it wasn't what I was expecting, and so I got bored. The characters aren't really developed. I have a pretty good sense of Jane and Mimi, but I don't really know the younger three sisters. Historical names-such as Nikola Tesla, W. T. Stead, and John Jacob Astor-are thrown in to make this historical fiction, but it was slightly unorganized. I wasn't ever really sure of the plot, or what was going on, although most of that came from expecting something completely different.
The biggest part about this though was the spirit world. Now, I have read my fair share of paranormal. But, somewhere along the way, it just became not my thing. I don't have an issue with it, but I prefer to choose it when I do read it. Ghosts and the like have never been my favorite. So, I was expecting something light and innocent, and it did not turn out that way at all. I felt slightly "tricked" into reading this, as I would not have read it had I known what it was about.
I didn't want to give this book an actual rating, because I did not finish. I have read other books by Suzanne Weyn, and enjoyed them. (In fact, I loved Reincarnation so much I read it like four or five times when I was in middle school/beginning of high school.) It wasn't because of the writing, but instead because of content. And it wasn't bad, by any means. It was just misleading, and because it wasn't about what I wanted to read about, I became bored. If the supernatural and spirit world is your thing, then you may love this book.
The book is absolutely nothing like the description. Nothing. And although the Goodreads description is a little more accurate, it's not by much. I mean, it even says it is "a novel of the Titanic". But it wasn't. Also, there are five sisters. The description says four. (Okay, unless one just didn't embark on the "journey of her life". I didn't finish, so I wouldn't know.)
The book is told from the point-of-view of the second daughter, Jane. It starts with some back story, when she a young child, and watching her mother contact a spirit for the first time. Recently widowed and pregnant, the mother moves her four daughters to a place called Spirit Vale, full of spirit mediums, where she can practice her "gift" without being judged. On the way there, they meet the famous Nikola Tesla, when they get caught in an earthquake he created with some machine he built. They continue on their way, but this creates in Jane what is an almost unhealthy obsession with Tesla. For the next ten years, she continues to collect every article, newspaper clipping, and story she can find about Tesla.
Her older sister, Mimi, is skeptical of their mother's "abilities". As the story goes on, more and more proof appears that their mother is faking more than is real. Mimi wants to get out of Spirit Vale. Eventually, something happens that triggers the last straw. Jane, wanting to enter a journalist contest, wants to interview Tesla, and they two girls head to New York.
This is about where I stopped reading. Now, let's get this straight: the story isn't bad. But it wasn't what I was expecting, and so I got bored. The characters aren't really developed. I have a pretty good sense of Jane and Mimi, but I don't really know the younger three sisters. Historical names-such as Nikola Tesla, W. T. Stead, and John Jacob Astor-are thrown in to make this historical fiction, but it was slightly unorganized. I wasn't ever really sure of the plot, or what was going on, although most of that came from expecting something completely different.
The biggest part about this though was the spirit world. Now, I have read my fair share of paranormal. But, somewhere along the way, it just became not my thing. I don't have an issue with it, but I prefer to choose it when I do read it. Ghosts and the like have never been my favorite. So, I was expecting something light and innocent, and it did not turn out that way at all. I felt slightly "tricked" into reading this, as I would not have read it had I known what it was about.
I didn't want to give this book an actual rating, because I did not finish. I have read other books by Suzanne Weyn, and enjoyed them. (In fact, I loved Reincarnation so much I read it like four or five times when I was in middle school/beginning of high school.) It wasn't because of the writing, but instead because of content. And it wasn't bad, by any means. It was just misleading, and because it wasn't about what I wanted to read about, I became bored. If the supernatural and spirit world is your thing, then you may love this book.
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