What do you think about the way that the story is being told?

Use this forum to discuss the January 2021 Book of the month, "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley
User avatar
lavkathleen
Posts: 776
Joined: 23 Apr 2020, 07:38
Favorite Author: Adam Guest
Currently Reading: Weeper
Bookshelf Size: 46
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lavkathleen.html
Latest Review: Spellbound - The Workings of Drugtech by Marcel Sahade
fav_author_id: 188841

Re: What do you think about the way that the story is being told?

Post by lavkathleen »

Bridgetbruso99 wrote: 11 Jan 2021, 09:41 I disliked that the only part told in 1st person is told by Embon's mother. And it is a bit difficult to understand why we are reading about Mr. Seol until so much later on. I did enjoy that you get multiple perspectives from several characters though
I don't dislike it... but I was wondering why her. Why not Embon? Perhaps because she represents that culture and history that "vanished"? Would it be too cliché if it was Embon? Maybe the story was told better from her perspective. These are the only things I can come up with right now.
Kathleen Lavador
pronouns: she/they

“Don't worry, honey. I'll keep the home fires burning.” — Gideon Nav, Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
User avatar
lavkathleen
Posts: 776
Joined: 23 Apr 2020, 07:38
Favorite Author: Adam Guest
Currently Reading: Weeper
Bookshelf Size: 46
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lavkathleen.html
Latest Review: Spellbound - The Workings of Drugtech by Marcel Sahade
fav_author_id: 188841

Post by lavkathleen »

Dabrielle wrote: 11 Jan 2021, 18:09 I think the author's use of multiple voices is very effective in that we are able to see the events from the particular character's perspective. Although there is the odd moment when I have to wonder who is the narrator, on the whole, this device breaks the monotony and draws the reader deep into the narrative.
Same! But at some point I realized it doesn't matter. For me, at least. The story had such a flow that didn't create a need for me to know who's narrating. What's important was that the story was flowing in a constant pace. It's a bit unnerving, but that's the only thing to complain about.
Kathleen Lavador
pronouns: she/they

“Don't worry, honey. I'll keep the home fires burning.” — Gideon Nav, Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
User avatar
lavkathleen
Posts: 776
Joined: 23 Apr 2020, 07:38
Favorite Author: Adam Guest
Currently Reading: Weeper
Bookshelf Size: 46
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lavkathleen.html
Latest Review: Spellbound - The Workings of Drugtech by Marcel Sahade
fav_author_id: 188841

Post by lavkathleen »

Kelyn wrote: 11 Jan 2021, 23:31 I have a love/hate relationship with this style of writing. It works if there are many characters that are hard to keep straight (such as in this book). It can become a bit clunky to deal with in books with less of a range of characters. I believe it worked quite well in this book as it helped keep the reader from being confused about who was speaking and allowed him/her to see things and experiences from each character's perspective.
Same! This style only works if the author knows how to handle it. I've read a book that failed to do what Pejay Bradley did here and it wasn't a pleasant experience. :?
Kathleen Lavador
pronouns: she/they

“Don't worry, honey. I'll keep the home fires burning.” — Gideon Nav, Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
User avatar
lavkathleen
Posts: 776
Joined: 23 Apr 2020, 07:38
Favorite Author: Adam Guest
Currently Reading: Weeper
Bookshelf Size: 46
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lavkathleen.html
Latest Review: Spellbound - The Workings of Drugtech by Marcel Sahade
fav_author_id: 188841

Post by lavkathleen »

Julehart1 wrote: 12 Jan 2021, 02:40 I don’t always love this style of writing, but in this book it makes sense to tell this story from multiple perspectives. There are many characters in the book, and it does widen the scope. I was glad to be able to see the views of the other characters even when they were narrating in third-person.
Indeed, this story needs to be told in a wider scope. I also love that Pejay Bradley presented characters from different social classes and had different beliefs because it effectively helped with that agenda.
Kathleen Lavador
pronouns: she/they

“Don't worry, honey. I'll keep the home fires burning.” — Gideon Nav, Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
User avatar
Dominik_G
Posts: 697
Joined: 29 Jun 2020, 14:45
Currently Reading: Secret Window
Bookshelf Size: 32
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-dominik-g.html
Latest Review: A Long Dark Rainbow by Michael Tappenden

Post by Dominik_G »

I quite like it when I get to learn about a story from different perspectives. However, I think that Lady Sougyon's chapters sounded very unnatural (and so did most of the dialogues in other chapters, for that matter). They offered descriptions, etc. in a way similar to the rest of the book, and I just don't think any person actually thinks like that. So, in my opinion, there wasn't a problem with the switching perspectives, but they didn't always feel natural.
User avatar
Kasun Perera
Posts: 369
Joined: 07 Jan 2021, 22:17
Currently Reading: Kalayla
Bookshelf Size: 69
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-kasun-perera.html
Latest Review: The White Coat Effect by L.B. Wells

Post by Kasun Perera »

Lady Sougyon is the main narrator. Though we see the story of different characters seperately, none of them get the chance to say their story, but only to act and show it to us. So we don't see their thoughts. The narration could have been given for few more characters
User avatar
Fazzier
Posts: 783
Joined: 16 Jan 2019, 14:07
Currently Reading: Secondary Break
Bookshelf Size: 547
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-fazzier.html
Latest Review: Planning for a Better, Greener Future by Peter Nelson

Post by Fazzier »

I usually enjoy stories given the first person narrative approach, and so I liked it when the author partly achieved this through Lady Sougyon. This was peculiar, especially considering the fact that women had a limited voice in this society. It, thus, enabled us to see things from the perspective of women. Nevertheless, the third-person narration wasn't bad either.
Laura Britos
Posts: 137
Joined: 13 Feb 2020, 15:45
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 45
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-ana-victoria2002.html
Latest Review: The Last Time I Saw Alice by Richard Kirschenbaum

Post by Laura Britos »

cd20 wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 18:59 I think it gives the story a broader perspective, but it can be distracting too. I personally prefer stories that don't follow quite so many people, but you can understand why it is done that way here. For this particular book I think it does make it more interesting.
I agree with you. Usually it is more beneficial for me to only have one narrator since it allows my reading to have a smooth flow rather than being interrupted by many characters. However I do think that the plurality in the narration also makes a story more rich.
User avatar
theprakriti
Posts: 92
Joined: 03 Jan 2021, 03:11
Currently Reading: The Glass Hotel
Bookshelf Size: 63
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-theprakriti.html
Latest Review: The Mindset by Ace Bowers

Post by theprakriti »

The way of the telling the story is quite engaging. The characters in the book are very well chosen so as to provide different perspectives to the same situation. It makes the reader more resourceful of what is happening in the country and also gives a clear insight into the story. The book is divided into parts to keep the reader from getting confused. I really liked how many stories were connected to a single whole story of struggling for freedom in the country. It breaks the usual monotonous tone of going along a single path of view. In this book, each character had their own view and even the less important characters had their background represented to the reader.
Sithmi
Posts: 92
Joined: 02 Mar 2019, 07:46
Currently Reading: Honest Endings
Bookshelf Size: 32
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-sithmi.html
Latest Review: Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas

Post by Sithmi »

The author has narrated the story from the perspective of various characters. The book is written in both fisrt person and third person narration. I think it would be more interesting if the narrator use either one narrating style. This book can be sorted as a historical fiction and would be very interesting to readers who would like to learn Korean history.
User avatar
Justine Ocsebio
Posts: 1604
Joined: 29 Jul 2020, 21:55
Currently Reading: Dancing Under The Stars
Bookshelf Size: 243
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-justine-ocsebio.html
Latest Review: Sex and the Sixty Something Guy by Mr. X

Post by Justine Ocsebio »

It wasn’t the most effective method. I wished the author just stuck to either Lady Sougyon’s first person narration or the third-person narration entirely. Having Lady Sougyon as the sole character who gets to narrate in the first person feels a bit pointless. Towards the last quarter of the book, her point of view just disappears.
Teele
Posts: 363
Joined: 01 Jul 2020, 06:10
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 46
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-teele.html
Latest Review: More Hype Than Glory by Tom Hyde

Post by Teele »

I love the alternating nature of the narrative. In fact, I mentioned it in my review and it made the book more interesting.
User avatar
crisanja
Posts: 121
Joined: 15 Mar 2020, 11:59
Currently Reading: shadow and bones
Bookshelf Size: 34
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-crisanja.html
Latest Review: Buried Seeds by Donna Meredith
Reading Device: B00L89V1AA

Post by crisanja »

I like that it alternates. One of the drawbacks to first person is that you miss everything the narrator misses. Having the third person sections helps broaden our view of the story. It gives us a bigger picture to understand the motivations of the characters. I think it was a clever choice of the author to write this story this way.
Eriny Youssef
Posts: 471
Joined: 11 Aug 2020, 07:35
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 97
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-eriny-youssef.html
Latest Review: Yesterday by Samyann

Post by Eriny Youssef »

It broadens the perspective and offers a complete story. But, personally, it was tyring for me to read that way. The jumps were just too frequent and the characters were too many regarding the length of the book. Maybe if the author reduced the number of alterations or POVs it could've been better.
Latest Review: Yesterday by Samyann
User avatar
Serenity2010
Posts: 173
Joined: 18 Jul 2020, 09:11
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 51
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-serenity2010.html
Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
Reading Device: B00IKPYKWG

Post by Serenity2010 »

The author's writing style made it easy to follow the characters as the story progressed. I enjoyed Sougyon first-person chapters because as a reader, I related to her more. I wish the author would have done this with Embon's character because the majority of the story surrounds how he developed as a person and the impact of various characters in different parts of his life. More Insight on Insoon would have been interesting because of how much the author used her father throughout the story.
Post Reply

Return to “Discuss "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley”