Official Review: A Girl Named Katrina by Sherley Schooler

Post by **Mallory Porshnev** » 22 Nov 2020, 10:58

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Girl Named Katrina" by Sherley Schooler.]

1 out of 4 stars

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A Girl Named Katrina by Sherley Schooler is an account of one woman's experience with Hurricane Katrina. Author Sherley Schooler volunteered her time to go to New Orleans and to help with evacuations during the hurricane. She also assisted with delivering supplies and hauling material. She was just present wherever she was needed during the chaos. This book documents what she saw and experienced while she was there.

The book is written partially in the first person as Sherley tells of her adventures. There are also passages written in the third person to give the reader a glimpse of what the turmoil looked like from outside the author's eyes. A handful of journal entries are also thrown in to give a feel for the author's actual thoughts during the event.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. It is such an interesting topic. I also thought it would be great to read something from the perspective of someone who had actually lived through the hurricane. I was extremely disappointed. This book was painful to read. The writing was terrible and sloppy. It was as if the author just jotted down notes and then decided to make those into a book. It didn't appear to be edited at all. I even found grammatical errors in the note from the editor. One quote from the editor reads thus, "That us, the readers, cannot help but read on!" Throughout the entire book commas were misused, sentences didn't start with capitalization, words were randomly capitalized that didn't need to be, quotation marks were misused, and there were countless other errors.

I didn't like this book at all. My favorite part was the theme of the novel, and I appreciated what the people involved were doing. The courage and selflessness displayed were inspiring. However, the book as a whole just fell short in so many ways that the story got lost. The writing was so terrible that I was constantly distracted. My least favorite part, aside from the lack of editing, was the use of multiple tenses. It just didn't make sense to me at all. I was confused as to why the author used her own voice sometimes and then, at other times, referred to herself in the third person. The style was lost on me.

I have to give this book 1 out of 4 stars. There were more sentences with errors than those without. I appreciate the sacrifices the author and the people in her stories made. They contributed greatly to those in need. I simply wish, if she had wanted to share her story, she had found someone who could actually edit or write it for her. I can't recommend this book to anyone because it needs to be polished completely before being presented to any more readers.

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A Girl Named Katrina
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Jennifer Aldo · Post by **Jennifer Aldo** » 10 Dec 2020, 00:49

Thanks for an honest review.

Serenity2010 · Post by **Serenity2010** » 10 Dec 2020, 11:43

This is the first review I have read, since I joined Online BookClub, that sugar coated nothing. Thanks for the honest review, I would have picked this based on the topic alone.

Faithy_Goody_Star · Post by **Faithy_Goody_Star** » 11 Dec 2020, 11:54

It is disheartening that this book contains several errors! The author should do the needful.

Yvonne Monique · Post by **Yvonne Monique** » 12 Dec 2020, 11:19

How can an author make so many mistakes? Or not have anybody proofread it?

Hawraa Msheik · Post by **Hawraa Msheik** » 15 Dec 2020, 02:08

Despite the errors this writing has,the topic attracted me,I always wondered what could be the feeling of those who survived a hurricane,and always wanted to see people sharing some of their moments during this disaster!By the way,thank you for sharing an honest review