Chime

by Franny Billingsley

In the early twentieth century in Swampsea, Wales, seventeen-year-old Briony, who can see the spirits that haunt the marshes around their town, feels responsible for her twin sister's horrible injury until a young man enters their lives and exposes secrets that even Briony does not know about.

• ISBN10: 0803735529
• ISBN13: 9780803735521
• Publish Date: 17 March 2011 (first published 1 March 2011)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Dial Books for Young Readers,US
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 361
• Language: English

Reviews

[catiebug]

I can't decide exactly how I feel about this one. Some parts I liked but in some ways I just found it uninteresting

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Chime could be a very compelling book for the right reader. The writing and the story were refreshingly new. The setting was very interesting and vividly described, ranging from the swamp, the dangerous abode of most of the Old Ones, to the parsonage to the rest of the town. A little more information to pin it down to a precise location would have made it nearly perfect.

Unfortunately, I found much of the book to be rather annoying. Briony, through whose eyes the story is told, has thought processes and speech patterns that came across as juvenile. She continuously describes things as her “witchy anger” or her “witchy hand,” which just makes her power sound cutesy instead of dangerous. She regularly calls the love interest a “boy-man,” which is an apt observation when he first appears, but which becomes old quickly. Again, it makes him hard to take seriously at times, even though he is a pretty strong love interest—mysterious, protective, loyal, chivalrous, and a “bad boy.” I could have done without that constant reference, as well, however. He is a little old to be a “bad boy” or at least to refer to himself as one, along with Briony.

Briony also has the exasperating habit reminding herself how much she hates herself and of assuring the reader that she is a terrible, wicked person. Yes, readers are supposed to realize these are only her thoughts and see the discrepancies between them and reality and think about how this might have occurred (ooh, mystery!). It is still annoying and a little depressing. And it takes the majority of the book for her to change her mind.

Luckily, her twin sister Rose is a fairly endearing character. Briony relates how she hit her head when she was seven and how she has not been quite right ever since—hence, Briony’s obsession with caring for her. Yet Rose is truly interesting and tends to make some of the best observations in the book. She tends to have strange thoughts and speech, too, but she has a reason. She comes across as quirky instead of just acting too young for her age.

There are also some very nice, clear clues given as to who the true villains of the story are. Readers will be able to catch onto them in a timely manner and piece everything together. Briony does miss most of these clues, being too obsessed with hating herself, but her obliviousness is not particularly frustrating. Overall, this is a mystery that allows readers to see what is happening without making it overly obvious.

Chime has its charms. There were times I very much enjoyed it. Readers will just have to make the call as to how much self-hating, immature characters will detract from their own experience of the plot, romance, and mystery.

[Stephanie]

This book is extremely different and unique from the ones I'm used to reading. It took me about 200 pages before I really started getting into it. And before that, I almost stopped reading all together.

The narrative was hard for me to read without getting bored. Some sentences I had to read more than once before I understood what they were trying to say. But I eventually got over that and the story really started to pick up. The writing is very beautiful and something you don't see much of now, which I think will turn off a lot of readers.

I really loved Briony, Rose, and Eldric. Briony is constantly reminding herself that she is a wicked person and doesn't deserve to be loved, but Eldric comes in and squashes that. Eldric was my favorite of them all. When Briony and Eldric's relationship started to finally pick up was when I couldn't put the book down.

Rose was such an interesting character. She would always mention secrets that she had, but would never tell them, and she was always so blunt about everything. Despite everyone thinking that she didn't know what was going on most of the time, she was the one who knew more than anyone else.

At first everything seemed so weird. I was really confused about the Old Ones and the history of everything, but it finally clicked and I couldn't get enough. It was all so interesting with the swamp and learning about all the old ones who lived in there.

Despite having trouble in the beginning, I'm really glad I decided to read this book.