E. J. Wenstrom

I haven’t previously read any books by this author, so I came into Departures without expectations other than the blurb.

The prose was tidy and easy to read, and I didn’t notice any typos.

It’s a straightforward story, told from the point of view of two sisters. Both narrative threads are in first person present tense point of view. I found some of the (main and side) character behaviour inexplicable, for the sake of furthering the plot, which I tend to associate more with YA stories.

Both sisters in their own ways discover that the world they grew up in isn’t as they initially believed. I didn’t feel terribly invested in either sister: each one mainly played the role of learning about the (to them) unexpected, which wasn’t unexpected to this reader.

That said, I was interested enough to read all the way through (and I drop probably 80% of books I pick up). The portrayal of their growing realisations worked well, even as I shook my head at their shock as they learned the “real truth” (but then, the characters probably haven’t read YA dystopia themselves).… (más)