Tag Archives: Urban Life

When We Were Vikings, by Andrew David McDonald

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I absolutely loved being inside of Zelda’s mind. Zelda, a high functioning young adult diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, has something about her that everyone can relate to. While exploring life’s boundaries, she often compares her world to the Viking world. Though others consider Zelda “not normal”, she considers her life a quest and strives to fulfill her legacy while searching for identity, battling for independence, and overcoming life’s villains.

“I told him that I was used to it. “People call me a retard all the time.””

Her older brother and caregiver, Gert, really pulled on my heart strings as well. He doesn’t always make the right decisions, but I felt like he had good intentions. Gert truly represents the depth and complexity of life’s unexpected turns. Gert’s character speaks volumes, and it is difficult to fully love him or fully hate him.

“We do not have very much money, but Gert is powerful at surviving life’s battles.”

Sexual freedom among the cognitively disabled is a topic explored in this novel. Zelda has intimate feelings for her boyfriend and wants to explore those feelings like most other young adults would. (Please note that there is a long segment on this topic.)

The language was very colorful, and I loved it. Zelda often utilizes her “Word of the Day”, but she also mimics the language of her peers and environment. As a result, this book is filled with adult language, but it made it so much more palpable.

“Those people, the ones who don’t trust Gert, are shit-heels and fuck-dicks, because Gert is one of the smartest people I know, and the bravest…”

I think this book will create excellent conversations and highly recommend it for a buddy read or group read. It has several controversial topics and covers a lot of current issues with cognitively disabled young adults. Though sensitive in subject areas, if you do have a respectful and close reading group it would inspire valuable discussion.

“And sometimes the heroes of legends have to break the rules in order to save the people they care about.”

What are the differences between responsibility and accountability? How do we decide where accountability falls? Can someone who loves you be bad for you? I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down. The last chapter, especially the very last page, had me in tears. I think we can all learn many lessons from Zelda. Thank you Gallery/Scout Press, NetGalley, and Andrew David MacDonald for this copy. Opinions are my own.

More on these topics:
Living with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Cognitive Disability and Sexuality
Employment with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

|Purchase on Amazon | Goodreads Review|

Night Boat to Tangier, by Kevin Barry

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The format and style for this book was overly confusing. The style reads like a play, but the format is just spacing without any indicators. For example, you frequently must figure out when a character is speaking. It was a lot of work.

The language also created a challenge. While many words were not found on my Kindle, some sentences didn’t even make sense to me. I am not sure if this is due to a cultural difference, but as a Westerner I was lost and confused about the context often. 
The story was also hard to follow because there were pieces left out; it would skip from one topic in a paragraph to something completely different in the next without ever filling in those missing pieces.

The blurb explains the synopsis quite well. The two men, Charlie and Maurice are old drug dealers waiting at the port looking for Maurice’s daughter. While waiting, they reminisce about their dark past. In my opinion, however, I feel like the blurb should be written in the style and format of the book so that the reader gets a taste of what they are getting into. 
I felt like Charlie and Maurice were both interesting characters with interesting backgrounds, but I didn’t feel emotionally attached to them.

Also, a few pages into chapter one I started counting the number of f**k bombs. A few pages into the chapter I counted 13, so that means there are 13+ in chapter one alone. This type of language continues this way for the remainder of the book, if not picking up its pace. There is also a lot of sex and drug usage.

While this wasn’t the book for me, it has received many great reviews that you might check out on Amazon and Goodreads. Thanks to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

| Purchase on Amazon | Goodreads Review |