Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Orfan by Corie Skolnick

5 Star

With a large dose of humor and warmth, ORFAN lets the reader in on the loss, grief, trauma, and isolation that children experience when the foundation of a loving parent is pulled out from under them, and they are placed in homes where they are not loved or appreciated, or even safe. While ORFAN has a fantastical side that allows us to reach in and enjoy the story of JD, it also illustrates the searing pain of aloneness and how important it is that our communities support all our "orfans" to have stable, permanent lifelong families. As we see with ORFAN, families can appear in all shapes and colors and from the most unlikely places. ORFAN is an old-fashioned page-turner with real heart and an insight into love and how people authentically come together as family.


5 Star

Orfan is a book with an epic story - one that made me think a lot about Forrest Gump and how his life spanned so many big and interesting events. JD's life resembled that somewhat, in my mind at least, and I found myself drawn into his story quite profoundly.

The story didn't feature any famous happenings but so many things of big import did occur that it became one of those stories I just had to keep reading, wondering what else could happen to this poor man (or child depending on what part of the book I was on).

A simple person with simple desires, the character of JD was one that I felt like I really got to know and love quickly. I couldn't help but feel for him as he seemed to have hardship upon hardship in his life yet amazing things kept happening to him as well which kept the book interesting and unpredictable.

This story was definitely fraught with much emotion and some of it was difficult to manage at times. Some things just felt too real and too heartbreaking that when good things happened it was just such a rush of pure elation for him that I knew the story had truly captivated me in the way that a great story will.

Descriptions were not over the top but just made sense with whatever character was speaking at the time as the story has alternating views throughout and whomever is speaking is mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. I liked that the author thought to give different points of view as this story became richer for it.

Orfan is definitely a hidden gem that I am happy to have discovered though it might not have caught my attention with the synopsis as the story is just so much more than originally indicated. Well worth the read!

Thank you to Corie Skolnick for our review copy. All opinions are our own. 

Connect with Corie:
Website
Facebook

No comments:

Post a Comment

Share!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...