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    Blue Window
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    Blue Window
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    Blue Window
    Audiobook13 hours

    Blue Window

    Written by Adina Rishe Gewirtz

    Narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith and Luke Daniels

    2.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Falling through the window of their family's cozy house into a dark and bitter world, riven by sectarian violence and struggle, five siblings search for a way out—and discover extraordinary talents deep within themselves on their path toward love.

    When siblings Susan, Max, Nell, Kate, and Jean suddenly find themselves in a completely foreign world, they are thrust into a fascinating adventure. An ancient prophecy leads them into a war between mysterious forces, and as they try desperately to remain united and find their way home, the society crumbling around them demands their attention and yet threatens to tear them apart.

    Elaborately told from alternating perspectives with exquisite attention to each character's voice, the story follows Max, Nell, Kate, and Susan as they strive to make sense of their stunning predicament in their own ways. A fantastical dystopian tale filled with nuanced looks at morality, sibling relationships, and the meaning of home, this daring novel, by the extraordinary author of Zebra Forest, explores the essence of what it means to be human and what holds a society together.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 3, 2018
    ISBN9781536685190
    Unavailable
    Blue Window

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    Reviews for Blue Window

    2.5/5

    26 ratings9 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This book reminded me of The Knife of Never Letting Go series by Patrick Ness, but didn’t do as good of job of creating a believable world. Caught between Narnia and Wrinkle in Time five children are prophesied to save a world in another dimension. I loved the five siblings and their very realistic interactions with each other, but no one else’s motives seemed clear. In addition there was a very dark side to this story and unfortunately as a whole I did not enjoy it from the beginning and sadly did not completely finish it.
    • 4/5
      A good book, but one that misses out on great because of a variety of structural, pacing, and plot issues.The basic plot is straightforward. Five children from "our" world fall through a magic window into another universe, where they discovered that they are prophecied saviors destined to save the world. So far, so good; this may be a story that adults have seen many times, but for young readers, this may be their introduction to this story shape, and a good retelling of that story is always welcome.Gewirtz does something that not a lot of YA authors manage to do, which is to make children who act believably as children. This is her greatest strength, and a reason to keep reading. Each of the five young protagonists is distinct and interesting.Unfortunately, the structure of the story does them a disservice. The book is divided into five separate 3rd person limited POV sections, one for each child in descending order of age. The early portions of the story are associated with the older kids, while as the story goes on, the protagonists get younger. The result is awkward -- just as you would want your characters to take on greater agency and a more direct role in the advancement of the story, the POV character has less agency due to their youth. The last child's section, representing the climax of the story, felt like it was all happening utterly without her control and influence, save for a deus ex machina ending. The result was muddled and confusing, and not at all satisfying.In fact, the author found constant recourse to a sixth POV, a character we don't even meet until late in the novel. Early on, that POV speaks in riddles so mysterious that they mean nothing to the reader, and were an effort to read. By the end, this POV becomes the only way for the reader to see certain things happen, but again, they do so without the POV character's agency.As well drawn as the characters were, the structure of the story did no favors to their development. Susan's story petered out halfway through. Max had an interesting journey, but one that happened entirely in the background, once his POV passage was over. Nell did not seem to learn much of anything. Kate's POV section developed her nicely, but in a way that had not been hinted before her section, and which was abandoned afterwards. Jean's POV section did her a disservice; a few interesting themes were brought up, but these were lost in the confusion of the climax.In short, problems with pacing and structure hampered what could have been a truly remarkable book. Young readers may enjoy it, especially those that see themselves reflected in the protagonists, but it has too many issues to appeal to a wide cross section of the public.
    • 4/5
      Five siblings tumble through a window into another world. Faces are distorted. Bodies are distorted. Words are distorted. People act in odd and unpredictable ways. Where are they? Why are they here? How can they return home?The five children must venture out into the world to find others who can help them answer these questions all the while avoiding those who seek to destroy them along the way.It’s a tale of adventure and action told from the point of view of five very different children, full of twists and turns those of us who love a good fantasy will enjoy.
    • 3/5
      I actually enjoyed a lot of this book, and I thought that the premise was very interesting! It felt a bit like a mix between Narnia and Oz, with a darker twist.I did feel like the book was something that I'd read before, but nevertheless it was a fun read. I did have a little trouble with the characters in the beginning, since there were so many, and honestly I feel like that was unnecessary.I do feel like this would be a good bedtime read though!
    • 4/5
      While I doubt that this book will be winning any major awards for stunning originality (shades of Narnia and The Magicians), if you enjoy world-crossing fantasy of the Young Adult variety, this is definitely an enjoyable read.The basic premise is interesting, if not exactly original. Five siblings from (presumably) our world cross over through a temporary portal (a window, in this case) into a world of magic (although 'psychic ability' might be a more appropriate description in this case) that has seen far better days. You could even describe the world as post-apocalyptic, where the apocalypse is set off by magic. The coming of these five children has apparently been foretold as the salvation of the world. Of course (slight spoiler), this ends up being the case, everything is set right, and our four heroines and one hero return home, with no one the wiser back on Earth.There were some interesting parallels to be drawn between the world these children visit and our own -- probably deliberately created. The alternate world was bleakly chauvinist, and that chauvinism had much to do with their destruction -- and the reversal of this chauvinism had much to do with their salvation. Overall, I enjoyed the story, and wouldn't hesitate to hand it off to my young teen (or my almost not a teen anymore, although she would breeze through it in a day).
    • 1/5
      I found this book horrible. I passed it on to a colleague of mine, and she was much more amenable to it, but even she found it not very well written, and not a great book for the age group it is aimed toward, which is elementary school age children. The characters are teeth-grindingly horrible from the first paragraph. Susan and Max are the oldest (twins). Susan has no backbone. Max is an insufferable know it all. Nell is the middle child, and the only character who is somewhat interesting, but she reads like a stuffy, bossy, little old lady for most of the book. Kate and Jean are the youngest, and are both interchangeable, although I think Kate is supposed to be older than Jean. Both are vapid, whiny, spoiled brats. All five obnoxious brats fall through a magic blue window one evening, and find themselves stumbling through a new world.This book has been compared to both The Wizard of Oz and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, both books I enjoyed. It's possible that my cynical adult self would hate those books if I read them today, but when I remember what I like about those books it is the new friends that the children find in their new worlds. I liked the beavers in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Dorothy's ragtag group of friends in The Wizard of Oz. The children in The Blue Window don't make friends with anyone in the new world. The people they interact with have very short parts in the narrative, and most of these characters aren't very pleasant. We are in the heads of all five children throughout the book, and these kids are really annoying. The other thing I hated about this book was that we get very little of the world they find themselves in. The history of the land is doled out very, very slowly, and it was so boring to read about that I think I missed crucial pieces of it because the end of the book seemed very anti-climatic. This is the problem with not having your characters interact with people in the new world. I want a Hagrid character, or a Tumnus character to sit down and explain everything about this new place to me. I want a history lesson upfront, not given out piece by excruciating piece over a 570 page book. Also, WHY WHY WHY were these particular, bratty children chosen for their task? Were they the "annoying family that lived"?I also didn't understand why the characters were so anxious to get home. I got no sense of the home they left behind, and their parents are mentioned so rarely that I don't know if they were divorced, together, gay, straight, mean, or nice. So why were these kids always complaining?I can't see myself recommending this book to any child, unless she was someone who had read the entire Chronicles of Narnia in a week, and couldn't stop talking about them. And even then I would think she would be disappointed by the lack of a cohesive story, or a sense of this made up world. Someone who really really likes long, heavy, boring books with lots of silly characters might enjoy this. However, people who enjoy that sort of book tend to be adults, and I don't think many adults would have the patience for this book.
    • 4/5
      Five siblings fall through a portal into a magical world. In searching for a way to get home, they discover that all is not well in this new place. Will they be able to survive and stay together long enough to figure out how to get back home?I enjoyed this book while reading it -- it's a portal fantasy, and I generally like those. However, I found it one of the darkest children's portal fantasies I have ever read. The world into which the children fall is incredibly bleak and dangerous, and none of the characters they meet are entirely friendly. I also think that the pacing lags a bit, and the halfhearted attempt near the end to drag in the Children of Prophecy trope was unnecessary. However, the concept is sound and the world is interesting enough, if rather depressing. I'd say that this is guardedly recommended to readers who enjoy children's fantasy with a dark streak.
    • 2/5
      This book started out very promising, as I'm a fan of CS Lewis and portal fantasies. Unfortunately, there ended up being more things that I disliked about it than that I liked. I'll try to list them (briefly) below. I would say that this is on the older side of middle grade. However, I'm not sure that it would actually appeal to it's intended age group.Liked:- The siblings and their relationships. Though the characters didn't exactly shine in this book, I could appreciate the dynamics between the five children (as an oldest of five myself).- The language and description used throughout (some of) the book. Gewirtz's writing style worked well for me for the most part.Dislikes:- This book had a major issue with pacing. It's over 550 pages long, it's middle grade, and almost no action really happens until the last 50 pages.- The world-building does not flow well, and I think that the intended audience would struggle to follow along with what the society actually means. - Though I enjoy multiple POV books, the way that this book is structured into 6 different POV chunks at a time doesn't work. Some perspectives were significantly less interesting than others. There was very little character growth or progression.- The ending did not impact me in any way. I was ultimately not invested in the story.
    • 2/5
      The beginning of this book reminded me of the Narnia books. I could not follow or get into this book at all. It was extremely long with about 100 chapters.