Review of Chew The Orange Rind

[Silvio Omutsiambo]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Chew The Orange Rind" by Rachel K. Martin.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Chew The Orange Rind by Rachel K. Martin is a short story where characters narrate their own stories. Based on what I understood, the characters in this book are friends and family members who died and met in the afterlife to share their experiences from their previous lives. Suspense has dominated a good part of the book.

Kipster, the main character, interacts with new friends he meets in the afterlife, and each shares their before-death memories. For Kipster, he remembers his widowed mother, who made and sold clothes to pay bills after her husband's death. He goes on to tell us how they frequently moved to different places because of tornadoes. On the other hand, his friend Henrietta shares how she and her mother survived on wages from casual labor, experiencing the same tornado effects as her colleague. Then, Krisper introduces us to the chewing of the orange rind, a norm with meaning that his father taught him.
 
Although fictional, the book felt natural because of the emotions displayed by the characters. It was very emotional reading about the disastrous and painful lives of the characters in this book. I also spotted bits of encouragement in the story. For instance, I learned something about Kipster's way of tackling hardships. Furthermore, how Kipster's family quickly bonded and made friends along their way to Mississippi was heartwarming.

However, I realized mistakes in this book that significantly affected my general view. First, I found the plot complicated, and it was difficult to tell what was happening. For example, in the beginning, I was sure Kipster was the one narrating the story. Still, somewhere midway, I couldn't wholly tell who was telling the story and if it was done in first or third-person perspective because several characters were talking. Secondly, I encountered numerous typos and punctuation errors. Many speeches were wrongly punctuated, thus making it difficult to know where the first speech ended and where the next speaker took over. Consequently, I was confused and strained a lot to understand this book.

I suggest another thorough round of editing for this book because of the above issues. It was poorly edited. Therefore, I will rate Chew The Orange Rind 2 out of 4 stars. I recommend this book to people who like mysteries and suspense stories. However, I must warn them that they need to be extra attentive or they will miss a lot in this book.

******
Chew The Orange Rind
View: on Bookshelves

[NetMassimo]

This seems like a novel that's potentially great but is let down but insufficient editing, so I hope the author works more on it to "clean it" and makes it easy to read. Thank you for your honest review!