With so many positive comments to make, it’s hard to know where to start. Julie Dalton puts words together in such a way it’s easy to visualize both setting and characters. The reader is transported to the forests of New Hampshire and feels a oneness with young Cadie and Daniela as they canoe the waters and explore the woods around their homes. One feels their dread and fear when tragic events occur. I could quote many passages from the book that I particularly liked, but I’ll start with this one:
“ A muggy breeze poured through the oaks and maples and pines, carrying the iridescent taste of fear across the shallows of the cove, beyond the vastness of the lake, and up into the mountains where the broken fragments of Cadie’s childhood took refuge in the fissures- and waited.”
The book goes back and forth between the friendship of Cadie and Daniela as young teens where a tragedy occurs causing a rift in their friendship to twenty-five years later when a body is found and the tragedy is revisited, causing Cadie to return to her hometown.
In the intervening years, Cadie has become an entomologist, linking bark beetle infestation to forest fires and also tackling issues of climate change with its effect on birds in particular. This gives author Dalton an avenue to include climate change as one of the areas for discussion in the book. Other themes in the book include immigration laws, race, and prejudice since character Daniela and her family are illegal immigrants from El Salvador. The author ties this all in well with friendship, family, and maturing being other themes.
Even though at times I wanted to race through parts of the book wondering what lay ahead for Cadie, Daniela, and others, this is a book to be read slowly appreciating the author’s use of language to create a picture. The portion below is from the last chapter in the book.
“All the other creatures had fled. The mice, spiders, crickets, squirrels. The silence they left behind hurt. The owl sat on a charred branch. Its home had been in these woods. Its mottled brown and amber stood out in stark contrast to the black and gray backdrop. Exposed without camouflage, the great bird blinked at Cadie and pulled its square head lower into its shoulders. Its whole body shuddered. As if shaking off a bad memory. The owl launched itself into the air. Time to start over. The only sounds in the entire forest were the slow flap of wild wings and the pounding of Cadie’s heart.”
I think many people would enjoy WAITING for the NIGHT SONG. I appreciate receiving my copy from BookishFirst and author Julie Carrick Dalton.
“ A muggy breeze poured through the oaks and maples and pines, carrying the iridescent taste of fear across the shallows of the cove, beyond the vastness of the lake, and up into the mountains where the broken fragments of Cadie’s childhood took refuge in the fissures- and waited.”
The book goes back and forth between the friendship of Cadie and Daniela as young teens where a tragedy occurs causing a rift in their friendship to twenty-five years later when a body is found and the tragedy is revisited, causing Cadie to return to her hometown.
In the intervening years, Cadie has become an entomologist, linking bark beetle infestation to forest fires and also tackling issues of climate change with its effect on birds in particular. This gives author Dalton an avenue to include climate change as one of the areas for discussion in the book. Other themes in the book include immigration laws, race, and prejudice since character Daniela and her family are illegal immigrants from El Salvador. The author ties this all in well with friendship, family, and maturing being other themes.
Even though at times I wanted to race through parts of the book wondering what lay ahead for Cadie, Daniela, and others, this is a book to be read slowly appreciating the author’s use of language to create a picture. The portion below is from the last chapter in the book.
“All the other creatures had fled. The mice, spiders, crickets, squirrels. The silence they left behind hurt. The owl sat on a charred branch. Its home had been in these woods. Its mottled brown and amber stood out in stark contrast to the black and gray backdrop. Exposed without camouflage, the great bird blinked at Cadie and pulled its square head lower into its shoulders. Its whole body shuddered. As if shaking off a bad memory. The owl launched itself into the air. Time to start over. The only sounds in the entire forest were the slow flap of wild wings and the pounding of Cadie’s heart.”
I think many people would enjoy WAITING for the NIGHT SONG. I appreciate receiving my copy from BookishFirst and author Julie Carrick Dalton.