Setting Free the Kites by
Alex George
My rating:
2 of 5 stars
So Alex George is a Missouri author, which is fantastic! (Go, Missouri!) I read this book with the full plan to love and adore it. Unfortunately, I shouldn’t have had so many expectations, because it made it hard for the book to live up to those.
I will say, that there are some things that I did really like, connect with, and found to be well-written, which means I definitely will try out more of his novels. It’s just that the important moments were too few and far between for me to stay invested in this story.
I do think this is likely a polarizing novel, which often happens with literary fiction. Either you are along for the random ride, or you aren’t. I thought at first that I was, but then I had to force myself to just stay on the train and not jump off at every stop. And there were more stops the further I got in the novel, which made it increasingly more difficult to push through to the end.
Honestly, up until that last 25% of the story, I probably would have given this book 3 stars, but the end just didn’t work for me on any level. I got over the rough start, and in the middle, I started to see more of the charm of the story, but I almost threw my hands up and quit reading at the final 2 chapters.
Because I was reading this as part of my work for a committee, I tracked things I liked and didn’t like about the book. Instead of rehashing it all, I’m just going to post them below, so you can decide for yourself whether or not this story might work for you.
For the sake of understanding, neutral items are things that are not necessarily cons, but that might have been reasons why this book might not be the best fit for my committee work. Since you aren’t on my committee, that’s probably not particularly relevant to you, but since the comments might be of interest, I have left them.
PROS:
• Friendship story of two boys
• Quirky setting
• Sometimes amusing
• Writing is okay overall and has engaging moments
• Original/Unique
• Diversity, especially in terms of medical issues
• Interesting themes for discussions: friendship, loyalty, grief, etc.
• The kind of story where everyone reads it differently and takes away completely different perspectives, so that makes for interesting conversation
NEUTRALS:
• Not particularly memorable
• It’s too literary fiction oriented to be YA, but it’s also somehow too YA to really be literary fiction. It’s like straddling the line, which is unusual, sometimes in a good way and other times in a less than good way.
• Could be slightly more challenging for librarians to book talk this one, but it could be done.
• On more of the dark and tragic spectrum, but with some occasional heartfelt moments
CONS:
• Story lags at times
• Has a slow start with lots of backstory (which is often unnecessary to the story and disrupts the flow)
• Sometimes crams important lessons down your throat, so they don’t feel organic or necessary to the story.
• Sometimes gets bogged down in too many mundane details
• Sometimes the voice is off, and the dialogue seems far too young for actual the age of the MC
• Potentially lacks widespread appeal, only because it feels like literary fiction and lacks a clear, straightforward sort of plot. More of a character study, which is fine for avid readers, but it can be harder to engage those that don’t read often, or at all, with this kind of a story, especially as sometimes the character development is not strong enough.
• Progression between scenes doesn’t always seem fluid/logical, but I got more used to it as the story progressed---or maybe it improved as the story progressed
• Ending is frustrating and ridiculous, and unfortunately, for me, it was emotionless (which is the worst, IMHO). I think it was supposed to have a big dramatic effect, but because I felt so disconnected from the characters and story by that point (due to the random inserts of unnecessary backstory taking up space that could have been used for character development), I just found it to be annoying. I was discouraged that I read so long just for that. It was trying to make a point that I just couldn’t care about, and the MC’s reactions were so off that I found it to be completely off-putting.
OVERALL:
Not for me, but it is going to appeal to a certain type of reader, probably the one who gets lost in nostalgia and cares less about the actual writing style and story development. Teen appeal is low, so it’s probably best suited to adult readers who enjoy literary fiction and don’t mind reading about younger characters. This would make for some interesting discussions, particularly the middle of the story, which becomes richer and more captivating. It’s the start and end that are the roughest and most likely to lose readership.
Pages: 326
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