Tuesday, August 11, 2009

122 - Firefly Cloak; Sheri Reynolds

Sheri Reynolds totally blew me away several years ago when I read her fantastic book, and Oprah pick, The Rapture of Canaan. Anyone who has not read this book, MUST give it a try. So since I had another book on my shelf by this author for a few years, I thought it was time to try Firefly Cloak.

In Firefly Cloak, Tessa Lee is just eight years old when she and her four year old brother Travis are abandoned by their mother Sheila. Sheila leaves the children at a campground, when she decides to skip town with her boyfriend. In the morning, Tessa realizes her mother is gone, and all that remains are some of the children's clothes, and Sheila's "firefly cloak", which becomes Tessa's only link to her mother. When Tessa notices a telephone number written in black marker on her brother's back, she calls the number and finds out it belongs to their grandmother Lil.

After connecting with their grandmother, who takes the children in, the story jumps ahead seven years to a point in time, where the reader learns that the grandfather (Lil's husband) has died, and so has Travis. Not much else is said about what happened. When Tessa, now almost 16, learns that her mother is living just two hours away, she takes off to see her to tell her that Travis died. When she finds, Sheila, recognizes her voice, even though she is much skinnier, Sheila denies being Tessa's mother. Sheila is involved in the world of drugs and alcohol. Through flashbacks, the reader gets bits and pieces of the life of Sheila.

While I love coming of age stories and stories of dysfunctional childhoods, something missed the mark with this story. Although the story was good enough, I could not help but be disappointed by the way it failed to measure it to The Rapture of Canaan. I still recommend that if you like stories with elements of abandonment, loss, addiction, forgiveness and redemption, you just may want to try this one for yourself.

RATING - 3.5/5; COMPLETED - 8/10/09; My Stacks

7 comments:

  1. It is a shame when a book is not as good as the previous ones. I am interested in reading The Rapture of Canaan now though.

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  2. Diane, I think I'll pass on Firefly Cloak but I haven't read The Rapture of Canaan and now I think I will.

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  3. Thanks for the review...I have never even heard of this book before.

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  4. This sounds kind of depressing, although you made me very curious about what happened to Travis!

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  5. It sounds like I need to look for The Rapture of Canaan.

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  6. The Rapture of Canaan was such an awesome book. I read it years ago but it's definitely one I would reread. I've never read anything else by her - maybe one day. Sorry this one didn't measure up but it's probably hard to have another as good as Rapture.

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  7. Wow, this sounds like a heartbreaking book! I am sorry that you didn't enjoy it as much as The Rapture of Canaan, but I do have that book on my shelf, and I am now looking really forward to reading it. Great review, by the way.

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