I am not too crazy about the theme of grief, but I took a look at Amazon’s excerpt pages and the strong voice of the main character--surprise, surprise the nine-year-old Abby McAndrews—captured me. So I read the book. My first impression, aside from Abby’s voice, was the strength of the insistence of the author on the theme, and as the result, she created a superb novel.

In the story, while the McAndrews family—Mom, Dad, Matt, Abby, and the three-year-old Joel—are on a family vacation in a beach town, and while the dad, Reverend John McAndrews is carrying Joel, a car careens off the road, hitting them and killing Joel. After this, the family is never the same again.

When they go back home, Dad cannot work and goes on sabbaticals three times in a row, causing the family to worry about losing their home; Matt turns to bad company and possibly drugs and alcohol, and Abby is terribly upset with what’s happening to her family. When the mother finally pulls herself together again, she becomes the strongest person in the family who wants everyone to look ahead instead of wallowing in grief and guilt.

Abby herself goes from grief to guilt and vice versa, but most of the time, as much as she hates what is happening to her family, she is helpless herself. There is a lot of introspection and observing others by Abby who voices her observations in an elegiac yet poetic tone. Her insights, sensitivity, and resilience provide the best highlights for the novel.

The author’s mastery in the treatment of the secondary characters is worth mentioning, too, mainly the people in the church, Rita who is Abby’s friend, and her mother Patty. All the characters are fully developed and fit the parts they play in the story beautifully.

Talking for me, I try to stay away from any religion's advertisements, but in this story, there is no religious sermonizing to the readers. What is there happens only because the plot demands it since the events take place around a church and the father is a reverend.

Talking about the father, as much as I understood his pain, he made me feel annoyed with him, since he was so selfish in neglecting the family by wallowing in his grief, not providing for them, and playing with the hobby of fixing timepieces to pass his time, which, at the end, I realized had to have been the author’s symbolism at work.

The novel’s ending is one of hope and satisfaction as the family unites again to face life together. Grief is a difficult theme to work with, let alone to show it as well as this author has done, and I am deeply touched by her sensitivity in handling the central problem and then, telling the story through the voice of a child so effectively.

learning how to work a theme.

Abby's voice.

the father's seemingly selfish behavior, even if it may be understandable, but this doesn't reflect on the author's craft.

my time reading it was well spent.

is Ann Marie Stewart.

The voice is exquisite, although it is that of a child, and the writing is very good.

I usually stay away from novels that are classified under Christian fiction because I don't like to be talked down to or listen to an author's religious solicitation, but this book is a gem and maybe I won't be as picky in this area again.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Stars in the Grass   from Amazon.Com!

Created Aug 02, 2018 at 3:14pm • Submit your own review...