The Boundless - Plot

The Boundless - Setting

The Boundless - Review

White Pine: The Silent Summer PART 7 -David Wu

The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley

David Wu

The last post! My final review for this book.

Part 7: Final Review

“The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley” was an excellent work. It was far above my expectations for it! I was expecting a slow and rather boring book about a stereotypical depressed teenage boy who get back into the social world with some help from his parents and mostly from some teenage girl he met. However, my original guess was proven wrong. This book had absolutely no teen romance in it, which I was rather glad about, and was much more motion and heartwarming than I would have expected for this book. This book is one the much better books that I have read.

All aspects of “The Silent Summer” were wonderfully and intricately constructed. Some of the best parts of this story include the character development, the theme, and the ending. All the characters were lifelike, appealing, and realistically unpredictable. They all had deep development into who they are and their personalities, forming some of the best characters I have read about for a book meant for a teen audience. The theme was made well, and the story stayed true to it.It aws quite a deep and complex topic for a book. Finally, the ending of the story was a beautiful wrap up of the book and concluded the novel with a positive note.

The plot and setting were also very good. The storyline was original and interesting to follow, though a tad bit predictable. The setting was not excellently described, but sufficient enough to provide a sense of location. As the setting was not a very vital point for this particular story, this was fine.

All in all, this was a brilliant book. It had very well developed characters and a plot that was interesting and original, two of the biggest factors to me that makes a book I like. All aspects in this book were far above my expectations for it!

Wonderful job, Jan Andrews! Keep up the good work with your other books!

FINAL MARK: 8 out of 10 stars

White Pine: The Silent Summer PART 6 -David Wu

The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley

David Wu

All good books should have good endings. Here, I analyze how successful the ending of this books was.

Part 6: Ending

The ending of a books is also vital for any story. If a book is wonderful by all aspects as you read it, but then it ends abruptly or illogically, would that still be a good book? No! The ending the final point which decides how good a book is.

The ending of “Silent Summer” was excellent. It wraps up the story with a nice little bow, leaving little loose ends. In the end, Kyle overcomes his isolation and confronts his father, rejecting him and choosing to stay with Scott and Jill, finally making a choice of his own. However, I must note that this ending was fairly predictable. From just the summary on the back of the book I could have assumed that he would have overcome his solitude and met with his father in the climax of the story.

This conclusion was a brilliant way of putting an end to this great novel, showing fully how much Kyle has grown from his isolation and pessimistic nature, as he is once again speaking, and learns to make his own choices once more. He decides to stay with Scott and Jill Wardman in their house to form a true family, for which they are all too happy to oblige. With his isolation “cured”, his alternate personalities fade away, with Kyle saying a sad farewell to The Lord of Ingenuity, one of his closest friends in his isolation. Quite a heartwarming ending.

Jan Andrews made a fantastic conclusion for this great story. I could hardly imagine a better ending for this book. Marvellous!

9 out of 10 stars

White Pine: The Silent Summer PART 5 -David Wu

The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley

David Wu

This will be about the theme of the book.

Part 5: Theme

The theme of this books is not very precisely clear, but is somewhat a cross between hopelessness and isolation. Kyle McGinley is very pessimistic, and barely believes in hope after being shuttled from one foster home to another, so his summer of finding hope in his newest foster family fits the definition of the hopelessness theme pretty well. Isolation also works quite well. Kyle is so fed up with being rejected from various foster homes that he has just stopped talking and is very alone in the world, keeping his ideas and opinions to himself and barely communicating with others. This book shows Kyle as he breaks out of his isolation and his depression to once again interact with other people and form a true family with Scott and Jill. This story fits the definitions of both of these book themes.

This book is all about internal conflicts, separation, and finding oneself again. The books stays very true to this idea, and does deviate from this theme very much. It shows the themes clearly and orchestrates them with great detail.

Great job on Jan Andrews for producing a book with such a deep and interesting theme!

9 out of 10 stars

White Pine: The Silent Summer PART 4 -David Wu

The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley

David Wu

The fourth post is right here.

Part 4: Setting

This story was primarily set in the house of Scott and Jill and the nearby surrounding area. The setting was not described in too much detail, but has enough so you can get the idea. The house is described by Kyle relatively well, but does not really specify the exact location or orientation of the house. At the start of the book, it is mentioned once that they are heading towards a place called the Ottawa Valley. Unless you really specifically know what the Ottawa Valley is, you probably would not realize that the house is in the middle of a place like this:

You would only truly realize that they live in a rural area on farmland when you find out that Scott was teaching Kyle how to drive a tractor. I believe that the house and surrounding area could have been explained in much more detail. Also, the inside of the house is not described in particular detail; we know what their are and the design and location of Kyle’s room, but the orientation of the other rooms in the house is quite unknown to us. I would have liked it much more if the house had been described in much greater detail, but that is a personal preference. I like all my writing to be accurate, precise, and detailed to provide a complete image.

However, the amount of detail describing the area is actually of little consequence to the book, as the story is mainly about internal conflicts and the heart, so the surrounding area is of little importance. Kyle doesn’t really go anywhere for the entire story other than moving around the house and explicit detail on the house and the inside wouldn’t do too much at improving the book.

The setting was described sufficiently, but not enough to satisfy what detail I like. However, extreme detail was snot really needed in this books as the focus was on the personal level, not on travelling or action.

6 out of 10 stars