![]() A clever write-up of conversational emails, swapped between different characters, constructs this work of fiction giving it a distinct style. ![]() A 52-Hertz Whale is the debut novel of authors Natalie Tilghman and Bill Sommer. initially, I thought the email format (in which the entire book is written) is corny, but I came around to like it as the story progressed.Īs for the flaws, the ending could have been a bit tighter, I thought, and also there were a couple of misspells, but these don't take away much from the overall awesomeness of the book. It has a lot of things I like - whales, teenage love, random scientific facts, phrases and expressions in foreign languages etc. Having nothing to read last weekend, I picked it up and started reading. I had bought this book for my teenage daughter as a Christmas present since I thought it's a bit different from all the dystopian stuff that she reads normally. ini Another YA book, which seems to be the type of all the little fiction I read these days. It sounds convoluted, and it is.but it is also entertaining and fun.Īnother YA book, which seems to be the type of all the little fiction I read these days. You get to know the supporting cast through their emails either to the main characters or to each other. ![]() Told only through email exchanges, this story is wacky and interesting. When one of the whales, Salt, separates from the group and is beached, James panics and contacts a most unlikely ally.a 20-something volunteer he once met in his special education class. He knows everything there is to know about them, and even follows a pod online. James is a 14-year old with autism (not explicitly stated, but understood) who has a fixation on whales. Told only through email exchanges, this story is wacky This was a quirky and strange look at friendship in the technology era. This was a quirky and strange look at friendship in the technology era. Come for the whale, stay for the human dysfunction.more Spoiler? I just want you to be prepared if you're coming for the whales. I mean, there's one, but he spends a lot of the book dead, so don't get excited. There are really not any whales in this book. It made what could be a rather claustrophobic contemporary into a roomy narrative.ĥ. My teen years were populated by many non-teens, and I appreciated that this teen novel was populated by non-teens as well. It is nothing like SOME DAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU, apart from also possessing a narrator named James, but it touched me in the same way. 52 doesn't have a lot of words to do it in, since there's no description and a fair number of characters sending e-mails, but I nonetheless felt I knew all the parties involved. There is some deft portrait-making in this book. I know I use the word big-hearted a lot to describe the books I love, but it fits this little novel well.ģ. The novel is ultimately uplifting without being saccharine. Both of them have terrible things happening in their lives - fractured relationships and public humiliation - but the conceit of e-mail-chapters means it is funneled through their wryly self-deprecating and dutifully factual voices, respectively. With that out of the way, I can tell you that I found the two main characters of this book - a disenchanted, heartbroken film student and a socially challenged, maybe-Aspergers whale lover - revoltingly charming. It might not for you, though, so I'm putting it right here as #1. I have a high-gimmick tolerance, though, as long it doesn't get in the way of my emotional or intellectual enjoyment of a book. As a writer, I understand that yes, this is a gimmick. ![]() With that out of the way, I can tell you that I found the two main characters of this book - a disenchanted, heartbroken film FIVE THINGS ABOUT THE 52-HERTZ WHALEġ.
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