Review of Away With Words
Posted: 06 Mar 2023, 18:11
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Away With Words" by Linda Folsom.]
Away With Words by Linda Folsom is a Young Adult novel about a boy called Charlie, who is dyslexic, and who tries to find himself in this fast-paced world while dealing with family drama. The author has spent many years working on television shows and films. She says this self-published book is a result of being forced to retire by the outbreak of COVID-19. This book is poignant even though it failed to make a very memorable character out of Charlie.
The book opens up with a fifteen-year-old boy called Charlie getting a tattoo. He is getting this tattoo partly to impress this girl called Tyler. Their relationship is one that started in an unusual way, so it is not surprising to see that even though Charlie is not sure whether he and Tyler are officially dating, he’s getting a permanent mark on his skin, still, to somehow prove to Tyler. When he gets home, his mother is distracted a bit. Before she can disclose what has her this distracted, she learns about Charlie getting a tattoo, and she freaks out. After calming down and having forgiven him for doing this, she tells Charlie that his father has called and wants to spend the summer with him.
Charlie has been living with his mother for so long that he is not sure what he will say when he meets his father. On the other side, his relationship with Tyler is only starting, so he thinks he can’t afford to be away from her, at least now. But he can’t help it. His mother sends him off on a bus to go to his father. His father is not there to pick him up. Charlie has to find his way to his father’s hotel. Can Charlie find his way to his father in this new, strange city? Why didn’t his father meet him? Why does his father want to spend time with him now after all these years?
These questions can be answered by reading this book. I quite liked reading this book. It was short and very intriguing. While I was reading it, one book called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon came to mind. Both Charlie and Christopher had stark similarities as characters. For one thing, they are both fifteen years old, and they both have had to do something that was totally out of their comfort zone, finding themselves challenging their limits to achieve something far greater than themselves.
Charlie, as a character, was well-built. The author paid great attention to his attributes to make sure they aligned with his dyslexic condition. Charlie always saw himself as a loser, thinking he won’t amount to anything. It was the people close to him who took the time to educate him about dyslexia, that it was not actually a barrier that he thought it was. This was a learning opportunity for me. Artists like Mark Twain and John Lennon, among many others, apparently, they too had dyslexia, but they didn’t let it define them. They managed to reach the highest heights of their stardoms.
The supporting characters, like Egypt and Roger, were also sculpted so well. Tyler, even though she was bigger than the two, didn’t play many parts in the story. Her point of view just revealed that it was she who approached Charlie because he was shy and that he hadn’t called and texted her since he went to his father. Apart from that, nothing much. The dialogue was also another let-down in the story. Charlie sometimes didn’t speak as a typical fifteen-year-old. He sometimes transitioned to sound like an adult, only to revert to his teenage self. The narration balanced this lacking dialogue with proper descriptions that weren’t filled with too many adjectives to paint the images perfectly to me as a reader. I could see myself in Charlie’s shoes. When he was talking about his father, yearning for his love and appreciation, I felt his emotions too.
The plot overall wasn’t realistic and convincing. I can’t expand much on this out of the fear of spoiling the book, but I couldn’t quite understand why Charlie didn’t call his mother when his father didn’t come to pick him up. He could have asked to use the phone from that help lady at the information booth. How the help lady handled it was unbelievable. As an adult, she should have instructed Charlie to remain there while she contacted the police so they could track his father together. I saw several errors that diluted the quality of the book. For all these reasons above, I am inclined to rate this book three out of five stars. I recommend it to teenagers and young adults.
******
Away With Words
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Away With Words by Linda Folsom is a Young Adult novel about a boy called Charlie, who is dyslexic, and who tries to find himself in this fast-paced world while dealing with family drama. The author has spent many years working on television shows and films. She says this self-published book is a result of being forced to retire by the outbreak of COVID-19. This book is poignant even though it failed to make a very memorable character out of Charlie.
The book opens up with a fifteen-year-old boy called Charlie getting a tattoo. He is getting this tattoo partly to impress this girl called Tyler. Their relationship is one that started in an unusual way, so it is not surprising to see that even though Charlie is not sure whether he and Tyler are officially dating, he’s getting a permanent mark on his skin, still, to somehow prove to Tyler. When he gets home, his mother is distracted a bit. Before she can disclose what has her this distracted, she learns about Charlie getting a tattoo, and she freaks out. After calming down and having forgiven him for doing this, she tells Charlie that his father has called and wants to spend the summer with him.
Charlie has been living with his mother for so long that he is not sure what he will say when he meets his father. On the other side, his relationship with Tyler is only starting, so he thinks he can’t afford to be away from her, at least now. But he can’t help it. His mother sends him off on a bus to go to his father. His father is not there to pick him up. Charlie has to find his way to his father’s hotel. Can Charlie find his way to his father in this new, strange city? Why didn’t his father meet him? Why does his father want to spend time with him now after all these years?
These questions can be answered by reading this book. I quite liked reading this book. It was short and very intriguing. While I was reading it, one book called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon came to mind. Both Charlie and Christopher had stark similarities as characters. For one thing, they are both fifteen years old, and they both have had to do something that was totally out of their comfort zone, finding themselves challenging their limits to achieve something far greater than themselves.
Charlie, as a character, was well-built. The author paid great attention to his attributes to make sure they aligned with his dyslexic condition. Charlie always saw himself as a loser, thinking he won’t amount to anything. It was the people close to him who took the time to educate him about dyslexia, that it was not actually a barrier that he thought it was. This was a learning opportunity for me. Artists like Mark Twain and John Lennon, among many others, apparently, they too had dyslexia, but they didn’t let it define them. They managed to reach the highest heights of their stardoms.
The supporting characters, like Egypt and Roger, were also sculpted so well. Tyler, even though she was bigger than the two, didn’t play many parts in the story. Her point of view just revealed that it was she who approached Charlie because he was shy and that he hadn’t called and texted her since he went to his father. Apart from that, nothing much. The dialogue was also another let-down in the story. Charlie sometimes didn’t speak as a typical fifteen-year-old. He sometimes transitioned to sound like an adult, only to revert to his teenage self. The narration balanced this lacking dialogue with proper descriptions that weren’t filled with too many adjectives to paint the images perfectly to me as a reader. I could see myself in Charlie’s shoes. When he was talking about his father, yearning for his love and appreciation, I felt his emotions too.
The plot overall wasn’t realistic and convincing. I can’t expand much on this out of the fear of spoiling the book, but I couldn’t quite understand why Charlie didn’t call his mother when his father didn’t come to pick him up. He could have asked to use the phone from that help lady at the information booth. How the help lady handled it was unbelievable. As an adult, she should have instructed Charlie to remain there while she contacted the police so they could track his father together. I saw several errors that diluted the quality of the book. For all these reasons above, I am inclined to rate this book three out of five stars. I recommend it to teenagers and young adults.
******
Away With Words
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon