The Sound of Whales product reviews

For me to want to pick up a book and read it the cover and the blurb really need to draw me in and the blurb of this book drew me in straight away. The mystery of why a man and a whale were found dead on the beach was really intriguing and I quickly wanted to dive in. I read the first few chapters at a breajmk neck pace eagerly turning the page I was hooked and needed to find out more. I think I would of read the first few chapters in an hour but then it got more drawn out.

I. Found the book really slowed down in pace in subsequent chapters and I found myself losing interest. I wasn't bored as I did want to find out what was happening but I could quite easily put the book down if something more interesting popped up. A good book in my eyes will have me so hooked I won't be able to put it down so it was rather lacking in the engagement factor.

I think I expected the book to be a gripping murder mystery with a horror theme to really keep me on the edge of my seat but it wasn't. The story in fact uncovered a ring of human trafficking which was interesting and I wanted to find out what was happening but it wasn't what I was expecting. The storyline seemed drawn out and I think it could of we quite easily focused on one character perspective rather than the two to keep up the pace a little.

All in all it wasn't a bad book and I did keep reading th book right through. I was happy I did because it had a good ending that drew the story together I just felt it could of had more action and suspense in the middle chapters.

This was actually a rather hard read for me. Usually I can finish a book within 48 hours but with this it took me eight days. I just couldn't get in to it. I am really surprised as it did win the 'Times Children's Fiction Prize 2014' but I was left feeling bored and it felt more like a chore at times to read.

The first couple of chapters had me hooked and I was excited and could not wait to find out what was happening but then it slowed down considerably and you where left reading words that did not add to the story and it turned it to pages and pages of boring dialogue so I lost all momentum for it. I still had that dying curiosity of needing to know what was happening but I found it so tedious at times.

The chapters are rather random. At times they where three pages long and in another case they could be twelve it was really all over the place. The chapters where told either from Hayley or Fraser's prospective which kept it real. I did not have a favourite character so was not concerned by whos prospective it was told from as I found the writing extremely similar in either instance.

I assumed the book would be about whales, and where as it was, that unfortunately was the under current instead it was mainly about Human Trafficing which also led to drugs and weapons. It was a little obvious who the bad dude was but the ending was still surprising. I did have my moments and the ending got my juices going again and led to me wanting to read it, but there was numerous occasions where I could not care less.