What can the oldest child do to provide for his siblings when their mother dies and their father deserts them never to be seen again? This was the dilemma Owen Tremayne faced when it involved the welfare of his brothers and sisters, Jamie Megan, Mattie, and Lisa.

Thus, Owen left school and began to look for a job. His job hunting didn’t bring much relief; instead, it became a nightmarish experience, out of which he ended up with some kind of a PTSD. During this struggle, however, he met the kindly older man Andrew Gordon, the owner of a business--AJ Gordon Associates, Architects. So, a relationship began developing between Owen and Mr. Gordon. This is all I’ll say on the plot to let the readers find out about the entire story on their own.

Although a story about the type of relationship between an older man and a young boy is not the sort of book I usually commit to reading, the love here felt so profound and real and the writing is so skilled and mature that, if I had passed it by, I would have lost some excellent reading pleasure. In addition to a relationship story, Mackerel Sky also deals with sibling relationships, family dynamics, the individuals’ personal torments, and the law.

As to the writing, what first attracted my attention is this author’s handling of the scenes and especially the significant moments in them. Most writers who write good scenes usually miss the important moments in them. Not this author, though. Her weighty moments use the utmost abbreviation of poetry, the tension of fiction, and the truth-telling of a character’s internal psychology. An example could be: “I cringed from him, which sent his brows straight. Disappointment colonized his face, but he could tell me I’d broken my word—that I’d stop doing stupid things—I reminded him of his. “You said you’d find me a proper official job.”

Although most of the story is told through Owen’s point of view, other important characters also narrate some of the events from their angles, thus letting the point of view character change from chapter to chapter. This gives the reader a strong view into the makeup of the POV character telling the story, still without cutting into the flow of the plot. In fact, the story flows so smoothly and its hold on the reader’s attention is so strong that, I had to force myself away from reading it in one sitting in order to attend to my daily life.

As to the characters, they felt very real and their portrayal is stunning highlighting their good, bad, or quirky sides and the show-don’t-tell rule in full effect.

In addition, this story has several themes with the main theme being self-sacrifice as I saw it. This makes Mackerel Sky a multi-faceted story opposed to being one-dimensional. For the same reason, although the main character as well as some of the other important characters are in their teens or are children, I hesitate to call this book a coming-of-age story. Truth is, I find it to be a human story along the line of works of some very great authors.

Although this book is the first one of its series, the story feels complete at its ending, which is alone is a good reason to want to read it.

enjoying a fascinating literary story dealing with interpersonal relationship with external and internal challenges.

who Owen was, although as a young person his personality wasn't fully formed yet.

read the next one, "Threatening Sky," which I did right after Mackerel Sky.

is S. Jade Castleton, a.k.a Osirantinsel

it has many sides to it. The story is masterfully written and easy to read with an exceptionally smooth flow.

I didn't say what I said about this book because this story is written by a WdC author. I only told the truth as I saw it.

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Created Aug 11, 2019 at 2:16pm • Submit your own review...