Far Far Away by Tom McNeal

Author: Tom McNeal
Publisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers
Date of publication: June 2013

It says quite a lot about Jeremy Johnson Johnson that the strangest thing about him isn't even the fact his mother and father both had the same last name. Jeremy once admitted he's able to hear voices, and the townspeople of Never Better have treated him like an outsider since. After his mother left, his father became a recluse, and it's been up to Jeremy to support the family. But it hasn't been up to Jeremy alone. The truth is, Jeremy can hear voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of the infamous writing duo, The Brothers Grimm. Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But when the provocative local girl Ginger Boultinghouse takes an interest in Jeremy (and his unique abilities), a grim chain of events is put into motion. And as anyone familiar with the Grimm Brothers know, not all fairy tales have happy endings. . .

I have very mixed feeling about this book.  I guess I have to say that I liked it, but didn't at the same time.  I liked the idea for the story.  I also enjoyed picking out elements of the Brothers' Grimm fairy tales that are woven in the tale.  I liked the mystery and the dark turn that the story takes.

What I didn't like was the pacing.  The story was kind of boring.  Not a lot happens for a long time. The story only gets good at about the halfway mark.  I know this is marketed for a middle grade level, but I have to wonder if most of them will make it through the first half of the book. The characters were kind of forgettable as well.   If you can stick with it, the ending is good if not a little sad.

Autumn's Top Ten for 2011

I cheated a little and this ended up being 11 instead of 10.

So in no particular order they are:

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
Original Sin by Beth McMullen
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
The Stranger You Seek by Amanda Kyle Williams

To Be Sung Underwater

by:  Tom McNeal
published by:  Little, Brown & Co.
publish date:  June 2, 2011

Judith Whitman always believed in the kind of love that "picks you up in Akron and sets you down in Rio." Long ago, she once experienced that love. Willy Blunt was a carpenter with a dry wit and a steadfast sense of honor. Marrying him seemed like a natural thing to promise.

But Willy Blunt was not a person you could pick up in Nebraska and transport to Stanford. When Judith left home, she didn't look back.

Twenty years later, Judith's marriage is hazy with secrets. In her hand is what may be the phone number for the man who believed she meant it when she said she loved him. If she called, what would he say?

I haven't read anything by Tom McNeal before, but from now on he will be on my list of authors to watch for.  I absolutely adored To Be Sung Underwater.  I had the audiobook going in my car and I couldn't wait to get in my car to hear more of this story.   The reader did an awesome job.

The story is told in alternating time periods.  It goes back and forth between teenage Judith and present day, married Judith.  In the beginning I didn't particularly car for the present day Judith, I only wanted to hear teenage Judy's story.  After awhile, I accepted you couldn't have one without the other.  Once Judith left for college, I didn't even want to know the teenager anymore.  I so despised her.   As you can tell my feelings for Judith were all over the place. 

The thing that remained constant was my affection for Willy.   He was a good man, but he just wasn't good enough.  He might have provided for Judith, but he would have tied her down.   I felt really bad for the woman who eventually became his wife, to always live in that shadow and know it.

This book has one of my new favorite passages:  "For you, I was a chapter--a good chapter, maybe, or even your favorite chapter, but still, just a chapter--and for me, you were the book."  It was heartwrenching!