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mperirose's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
zoli's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
bookreviews1's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
charley_09's review against another edition
Everything about this book was slow and boring including the writing, plot and characters. Carl is the main character we are supposed to root for but he’s a creep and has no other personality traits than being insecure about his weight which could have been interesting if it was given time to develop but no . The plot was slow and uninteresting with little to no point with it having no diving point. The writing is boring and weighs down the story even more and makes the characters even more uninteresting. When the plot was starting to have some bit of a plot it went an entire different plot. The characters that were not annoying had no time to develop and had little time to get to know them. Carl as a character annoys me as well as the entire main cast, you could say that was the point but I believe it wasn’t Carl hardly develops as a person and the other characters have even more little development. I truly think this book needs to have a better editor with just errors in the writing and this book doesn’t have the right audience in my opinion as someone who reads regularly, I would understand the people who aren’t interested in reading because of this book and think all books in the YA genre are like this when they really aren’t. I didn’t do this review to hurt anyone or say if you like this book you are wrong because people do like this book. So if you do like this book good for you, I wish I did like this book but I really didn’t
calloel's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
katietapestry's review against another edition
3.0
This was an enjoyable novel, following the tale of Carl and his struggle to look after his brother Harley after he is forced to live with his bogan Aunt on the coast after being abandoned by his older sister and his mother.
James Maloney writes as well as Tim Winton when it comes to getting young readers to identify with the protagonist of the book and when I taught this to 16 year olds they seemed to enjoy the setting and the characters depsite there being no action or fantasy elements.
James Maloney writes as well as Tim Winton when it comes to getting young readers to identify with the protagonist of the book and when I taught this to 16 year olds they seemed to enjoy the setting and the characters depsite there being no action or fantasy elements.
sudsyy_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
zitongren's review
1.0
A Bridge To Wiseman’s Cove is a young-adult novel by Australian author James Moloney. It has won the CBCA book of the year for older readers when it was first published, and as such people would expect that this would be a pretty good book. Well, the average rating on Goodreads hovers just above the three star mark, and I kid you not, for a book that almost has a thousand ratings, it is by far the lowest I have yet seen. I can say that reading the book was not an enjoyable experience and unless your school teacher has forced it upon you, there is much better YA literature out there. All thoughts and options are my own, they are not meant to offend or hurt anyone.
My experience with Moloney on the whole has not been great, and before I had yet begun this book, I was dreading that it would be bad, and yes, by just looking at my rating, it was bad. The writing was miserable, the main character was annoying, and dare I say it, whiny, and the plot was uninteresting and lacks in energy. This book is targeted towards young-adults, yes great. How do you get people who read little enough as it is to read more? Slow pacing, boring characters, heavy descriptions and a plot that never goes anywhere, genius! No one wants a riveting storyline with badass yet funny characters and writing that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Of course not, we don’t want that.
The writing in this book is horrendous in every way. It is slow, boring and bland. The author’s use of metaphors and similes were infuriating. He is far too over exaggerated in many of the things he writes. At one point he compares the amount of damage a bike has done to Genghis Khan. My issue with this is that how many thirteen year old’s are actually aware of who Genghis Khan is, and yes, I understand it is hyperbole, but the whole point of YA is to make them feel like they can relate to the writing and the story, not making them feel like they are reading a history textbook. Furthermore, for a book of its genre, there is too much descriptions of everything, and far too less of everything else. This makes everything really slow and the story never actually really picks up at all. The prelude was useless until the last page of the book and aside from the the first and last few dozen pages, very little happens at all.
There is this constant battle between these two barges that sees both them going back and forth for effectively the entire book and the way it was resolved was very bland and was up to no brilliance from the characters. This is somewhat of a romance, and possibly even a love triangle if one could call it that, the trouble with this though is that it never goes beyond holding hands and some cuddling. In general, there could have been so much depth to the story and it could have been so much better, but it wasn’t, and perhaps I can’t stand his writing style or that the prospect of a guy with his barge bores me, but nothing else happens! Carl starts washing cars on the barge and he is still doing the same thing two hundred pages later. Aside from some slight character development, there’s not much left to the story.
The characters. I do not even want to think about the characters, they are that wretched. Carl is stated to be a ‘lumpy fifteen-year-old.’ Ok, I’m cool with that, complete fine, but that’s not all, he’s also a pervert and it is the creepiest thing and makes him feel like a fifty year old pedophile. He trails this girl and spies on her, he creeps in and hides when trying to listen in to conversations and later, when she is nude and sleeping, instead of walking away, he stand there and ogles her. It is wrong, it is creepy and he did it again hundreds of pages later. But no, that’s not even the worst part of it.
Carl’s Mum abandons them every once in a while, Carl’s older sister, Sarah also ditches them for Europe(it is set in Australia), his brother Harley is a thief, Aunt Beryl is an alcoholic and gambles, so Moloney, congratulations on creating the most annoying and hate worthy crew of characters. Skip and Bruce are prone to temper tantrums, and Nathan is a bully. The nicer characters, like Joy, Justine and Maddie get overshadowed by the people who are annoying, whining and unlikeable, so, well done. Do they improve, well yes, but actually no. Aunt Beryl and Bruce ditch the town at the end, Nathan and Maddie don’t actually appear at the end, Skip has let go of the past at least and Carl cries the entire time.
It mentions issues such as being overweight, but is not necessarily dealt with as Carl is bullied for his stature but after months of work, is looses lots of his weight and bam, problem solved, which escapes the hard reality.
It is unfortunately not a very good book from my perspective, and I’m aware that there are people that have loved its so it can’t be entirely terrible, but I would give it a pass. 1.5/10
Edit: It is riddled with grammatical errors including missing quotation marks, missing words and misplaced use of quotation marks.
My experience with Moloney on the whole has not been great, and before I had yet begun this book, I was dreading that it would be bad, and yes, by just looking at my rating, it was bad. The writing was miserable, the main character was annoying, and dare I say it, whiny, and the plot was uninteresting and lacks in energy. This book is targeted towards young-adults, yes great. How do you get people who read little enough as it is to read more? Slow pacing, boring characters, heavy descriptions and a plot that never goes anywhere, genius! No one wants a riveting storyline with badass yet funny characters and writing that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Of course not, we don’t want that.
The writing in this book is horrendous in every way. It is slow, boring and bland. The author’s use of metaphors and similes were infuriating. He is far too over exaggerated in many of the things he writes. At one point he compares the amount of damage a bike has done to Genghis Khan. My issue with this is that how many thirteen year old’s are actually aware of who Genghis Khan is, and yes, I understand it is hyperbole, but the whole point of YA is to make them feel like they can relate to the writing and the story, not making them feel like they are reading a history textbook. Furthermore, for a book of its genre, there is too much descriptions of everything, and far too less of everything else. This makes everything really slow and the story never actually really picks up at all. The prelude was useless until the last page of the book and aside from the the first and last few dozen pages, very little happens at all.
There is this constant battle between these two barges that sees both them going back and forth for effectively the entire book and the way it was resolved was very bland and was up to no brilliance from the characters. This is somewhat of a romance, and possibly even a love triangle if one could call it that, the trouble with this though is that it never goes beyond holding hands and some cuddling. In general, there could have been so much depth to the story and it could have been so much better, but it wasn’t, and perhaps I can’t stand his writing style or that the prospect of a guy with his barge bores me, but nothing else happens! Carl starts washing cars on the barge and he is still doing the same thing two hundred pages later. Aside from some slight character development, there’s not much left to the story.
The characters. I do not even want to think about the characters, they are that wretched. Carl is stated to be a ‘lumpy fifteen-year-old.’ Ok, I’m cool with that, complete fine, but that’s not all, he’s also a pervert and it is the creepiest thing and makes him feel like a fifty year old pedophile. He trails this girl and spies on her, he creeps in and hides when trying to listen in to conversations and later, when she is nude and sleeping, instead of walking away, he stand there and ogles her. It is wrong, it is creepy and he did it again hundreds of pages later. But no, that’s not even the worst part of it.
Carl’s Mum abandons them every once in a while, Carl’s older sister, Sarah also ditches them for Europe(it is set in Australia), his brother Harley is a thief, Aunt Beryl is an alcoholic and gambles, so Moloney, congratulations on creating the most annoying and hate worthy crew of characters. Skip and Bruce are prone to temper tantrums, and Nathan is a bully. The nicer characters, like Joy, Justine and Maddie get overshadowed by the people who are annoying, whining and unlikeable, so, well done. Do they improve, well yes, but actually no. Aunt Beryl and Bruce ditch the town at the end, Nathan and Maddie don’t actually appear at the end, Skip has let go of the past at least and Carl cries the entire time.
It mentions issues such as being overweight, but is not necessarily dealt with as Carl is bullied for his stature but after months of work, is looses lots of his weight and bam, problem solved, which escapes the hard reality.
It is unfortunately not a very good book from my perspective, and I’m aware that there are people that have loved its so it can’t be entirely terrible, but I would give it a pass. 1.5/10
Edit: It is riddled with grammatical errors including missing quotation marks, missing words and misplaced use of quotation marks.
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