OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Emmie of Indianapolis" by Kay Castaneda.]

“Oh Emmie, Oh Emmie, she’s from Indianapolis. Her hair is dark red and her eyes are so brown. Everyone knows her in the whole blessed town!” -Emmie of Indianapolis

It’s a hard transition for children when parents are going through a divorce. When a divorce occurs, so many changes take place. There is a change of bedrooms, houses, neighborhoods and cities. Some children don’t take the changes well. There are other children who rise to the challenge because of their resilient and positive nature. Emmie O’Brien is an example of a resilient and positive child.

In Kay Castaneda’s Emmie of Indianapolis, we are introduced to twelve-year-old Emmie O’Brien and her family. Emmie’s parents decide to divorce and she moves to a small apartment in Indianapolis with her mother and two younger sisters. During her time Indianapolis, Emmie meets new friends and creates new memories in the city. Life isn’t all good in Indianapolis as Emmie and her friends are exposed to racism, physical abuse, murder and rape. Emmie finds herself trying to protect her friends. She must also care for her sisters as her mother falls into a depression and starts to neglect the family. This is a coming of age story about a girl and her life in Indianapolis.

Emmie of Indianapolis is written in an episodic form. Every chapter contains either a new or continuing adventure for Emmie and her loved ones. The plot is concise and easy to follow. The problem I found with the plot is that it lacked depth. There were many deep topics in the book that was treated with an unnatural lightheartedness. In the story, Emmie witness a rape and escapes a rape attempt that was made on her. None of the characters didn’t seem too shaken up about it and the plot quickly moved on to the next topic. This occurred with other issues where there was physical abuse and even murder. There was no resolution to any of the negative things that Emmie faces. This made a lot of the plot seem unrealistic and not authentic at all.

Emmie comes off as a charming character, but I felt she lacked depth and most of the time, her character was uninteresting. There was some development as we witness her growth from a child to a young lady. When her mother falls apart, Emmie takes care of her sisters and herself. I also liked how the author made Emmie’s character religious. There are other characters in the book as well such as, George Washington, a Chinese immigrant, Joe, an African American from a religious household and Polly, who comes from a family of gypsies. I loved the diversity of the characters, but most of the time, I found it hard to connect with them as well. I didn’t think any of the characters were well developed.

I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. There were grammatical errors, the plot lacked depth and the characters didn’t seem authentic. Despite the negatives, I enjoyed the diversity of the characters. I also enjoyed the religious tone of the story as Emmie’s faith in God helps her to handle a lot of the darkness in the world. As of this moment, I wouldn’t recommend this book to any age group. The heavy and dark topics keeps me from recommending it to middle grade aged children. The age of Emmie keeps me from recommending it to older teens. Maybe in the future, I will be able to recommend this book to an appropriate audience. I hope by that then that the plot and characters will be more authentic and relatable.

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Emmie of Indianapolis
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Divorce, and all the problems and adjustments that it brings, is not easy for the couples involved, but it is much harder on the innocent children, if any. For that matter, marriages must be preserved as much as possible. That goes to show that care is needed in choosing a spouse. A very good review.

Chrys Brobbey wrote:Divorce, and all the problems and adjustments that it brings, is not easy for the couples involved, but it is much harder on the innocent children, if any. For that matter, marriages must be preserved as much as possible. That goes to show that care is needed in choosing a spouse. A very good review.

Thank you for reading!

It's too bad that the characters weren't as well developed as they could have been. I like that there were a lot of diversity in the characters. Great job on the review!

ZenaLei7 wrote:It's too bad that the characters weren't as well developed as they could have been. I like that there were a lot of diversity in the characters. Great job on the review!

Thank you so much!

Great review. Too bad you felt that the main character lacked depth. Judging from your review the story has potential.

It's too bad the characters weren't developed better. It sounds like this book covers some good subjects for young adults, but if they can't relate to the characters, they probably won't read it. Thanks for the review.

kandscreeley wrote:It's too bad the characters weren't developed better. It sounds like this book covers some good subjects for young adults, but if they can't relate to the characters, they probably won't read it. Thanks for the review.

Thanks for reading!

-- 16 May 2017, 11:05 --

Jaime Lync wrote:Great review. Too bad you felt that the main character lacked depth. Judging from your review the story has potential.

It had a lot of potential! Hopefully there will be some kind of revision and characters will have more content.

Thanks for reading!

I hate that the characters lacked depth and their we're grammatical errors. A book about how children handle what happens when parents divorce is something I think we need more of. This is very common in this day and age. Thank you for your honest review, Amagine!

christinac_2585 wrote:I hate that the characters lacked depth and their we're grammatical errors. A book about how children handle what happens when parents divorce is something I think we need more of. This is very common in this day and age. Thank you for your honest review, Amagine!

Thank you for reading, Christina!

Excellent review! I'm sorry that the book wasn't written better, but it does seem to have potential. I hope that the author takes your words seriously and makes the necessary improvements.

LivreAmour217 wrote:Excellent review! I'm sorry that the book wasn't written better, but it does seem to have potential. I hope that the author takes your words seriously and makes the necessary improvements.

I hope so as well. Thank you for reading!