third-person Archives - Meadowlarkin'

This review is on the advance copy of an unpublished work I received through NetGalley. Long Lost by Jaqueline West is due for release May 11th, 2021.

I have written and re-written this review several times. Everything I say seems like a discredit to what I truly experienced reading this book. There’s something simply divine about being a girl reading a book about a girl reading a book. The story-within-a-story element of Long Lost by Jacqueline West brought me back to my childhood, hiding in a closet with A Never-ending Story, Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, a Wrinkle in Time, ect… I am certain Long Lost would rank among these as one of my favourites. I got cozy and devoured these pages. They took me to another place and time, where anything could happen.

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Hmmm… well, this one didn’t turn out to be a favourite.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is about a recently-returned Jesuit priest, Emilio Sandoz, the only survivor of a first-contact mission to meet sentient alien life. There is a lot of controversy about the mission, which was apparently launched in secret and funded by the church. Communications between Earth and the alien planet Rakhat have been spotty: each transmission from Rakhat takes around 17 years to get back to Earth. So after a rescue mission picks up Emilio and sends him back, the infamous story of his becoming a prostitute and murdering a child has already preceded him.

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