Customer Reviews

Cage of Stars

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This book started out fairly good, but after the murders it started going downhill fast. It seems the author didn't research the life of a Mormon very well. Nothing related to mormonism was really true. and How many parents send their 16-17 year old girl away to college without going with her to set up an apartment and find out about the school she goes to? The main story was interesting - the supporting roles were too much of a fairly tale.

Veronica Swan's two little sisters are murdered while she is babysitting them. Her life and her parents are turned upside-down as they try to deal with their grief while facing the media. Ronnie's parents struggle with their grief for two years but slowly seek to forgive Scott Early. Ronnie does not understand their decision which forces her to move out. She decides to go to California. It is no coincidence that Scott and his wife are now living there. Ronnie pursues her dream of becoming an EMT. She manages to get a job babysitting for Juliet, Scott and Kelly's baby daughter. Ronnie deftly manages to stay connected to her friends from home and make new ones on the job. The case is one that will stay with you for a long time after finishing the last page. Bravo for such a great masterpiece!

Without the heinous crime this little novel very well could have been shelved as a young adult title...Ronnie is rtdiculously unrealistic...Scott Early(the grim reaper)very thinly sketched...basketball play by play...cutsie instant messaging...first kisses...not to mention painfully unrealistic college admissions...Yale? Harvard? EMT training at 16? I lost all patience with this by the syrupy ending.More than disappointed.

I wouldn't want to be Ronnie Swan, and yet her story mesmerized me, as did Jacquelyn Mitchard's ability to spin this emotional tale around the kind of family catastrophe parents fear most. As Ronnie moved forward through her life, I kept asking myself, What would you do? I'm still not sure. But when I finished reading her story, it was with great sadness that we had to say good-bye.

This book presents a dilemma that all of us will sometime face,to forgive another individual for the hurt and pain they have caused us and those we love. No matter what others may say about forgiving another, the decision to forgive always comes from an individual's own choice. This book shows the struggle involved in forgiving and presents a good story. However, if you read this book with the idea that you will learn about the Mormon church and its members please note that the author did some research about the Mormons but failed to go to their church and see what really happens at a Mormon Church. She learned that they have temples, but does not understand what really happens there. She learned about the Church officers and organizations but not how they function or what is done by the officers or at the meetings. If you want to know more about "Mormons" please come to our Church meetings and ask us some quesions. We'd love to show you what we really do and what we really believe. It is nice that Ms. Mitchard chose to use the Mormon Church as a group that teaches forgiveness which we do, but there was so much that she did not get right.

Being a practicing Mormon all my life, I was really excited when I read about this book and even purchased it brand new instead of getting it at the library, or buying it used. I was very disappointed.

In the acknowledgements, the author thanks someone for making sure her depictions of Mormonism were accurate. She should have picked someone else or had several people check out the facts as there were many, many, many things that were misrepresented. Sadly, it seemed that she knew as much about Mormonism as I know about Judaism or Catholocism and I would never dream of writing a book where the main characters practice a religion I obviously know so little about (not to mention that the religion itself was an integral part of the story, not just a form of character development). I could list literally dozens of times in the book where I had to suspend belief about what was happening because it was inaccurate--it became harder and harder to do.

Then on top of the mistakes about Mormon doctrine, there were chronological problems that were hard to overlook. The Manhattan temple in New York was dedicated in 2004 and didn't even exist 4 or more years earlier when Ronnie and Clare could have talked about Clare performing in New York. Ronnie was given an i-Pod on her 16th birthday, but the book ends with her being at least 24 and there were no i-pods eight years ago. There is no temple in Cedar City, Utah and a father doesn't take each child to be sealed to him after their birth--if a couple has been married or sealed in the temple, their children are born sealed to them.

16 year old Ronnie enrolls in school in California and finds appropriate lodging on her own. Just way too many things that required me to overlook things.

I wouldn't recommend this book to others. It is a pretty good read if you overlook all these things and more, but as a Mormon, I wouldn't really want all the misconceptions that were shared as reality in the book to be distributed any further.

Mitchard does it again! She has provided us with a magnificent feast of a read...from the strength of the characters, the story and the fact I couldn't put it down until I turned the last page gave me and will give others the wonderfully satisfying pleasure one gets after finishing the last course of an incredible gourmet meal delight! I recommend it to fans of Mitchard & first time readers...you won't be disappointed!

From the very first chapter I felt an urge to reach out and hug Ronnie Swan. At a very young age she experienced a trauma that forever changed her life and the dynamic of her family. She was never quite able to recover from that experience and she lived every day of her life looking to the day she would make things right. Her parents were so affected by the same tragedy that they were unable to help Ronnie deal with her grief until it was too late.

As is almost always the case, when we set out to make things "right" we usually create more tragedy in our own lives. Ronnie's desire for retribution did not enable healing as she had hoped. Instead it created a whole new tragedy that she and her family had to endure very publicly.

Jacquelyn Mitchard is one of the most prolific contemporary authors and she has truly earned her reputation again with this story. I had to force myself to put it down. I believe that this story should be required reading in every school and for every parent because of the lessons it teaches about the power of love and family and the dangers of retribution.

The power of forgiveness is the centerpiece for Jacquelyn Mitchard's sweet and satisfying novel, 'Cage of Stars.'
Young Veronica Swan's life is sheared in two when a man wanders into the backyard of her Utah home and brutally slaughters her two little sisters. As her family tries to move through their grief and find a way to forgive the man, Veronica, or Ronnie as she calls herself, finds his crime unforgivable, ultimately setting a collision course for herself and the killer, Scott Early. I liked so much of this novel, finding Ronnie a wonderfully drawn and sympathetic character. And even though the ending I felt became a bit contrived, by then I was along for the ride and would of bought whatever the author decided to serve me.

This book was the best. I thought it was going to end one way but ended up another, for which I am glad. We have a very smart young lady who has to deal with her two sisters being murdered. She feels like she can't forgive. Her parents come to terms and forgive Scott, and then she feels betrayed. What else to do but to move to California where Scott, his wife and their new baby life?

What happens after that you will have to find out. But I promise you will not be let down. Enjoy!