Customer Reviews

Cranberry Queen

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I don't like cranberries, and I always thought New Jersey was just a turnpike, but I did like CRANBERRY QUEEN by Kathleen DeMarco. Although Ms. DeMarco is a screenwriter, a seasoned writer, I believe this is her first novel. I like first novels because they seem to be written in a more carefree, heartfelt voice. They seem more personal. This book does not deviate from my opinion of first novels.

Diana's life has taken a few bad turns and she's looking for an out. Her boyfriend has run off with a younger girl and she's not real happy about that. But when her entire family is killed in a car accident in South Jersey she knows she has more than she can handle in her life. Diana escapes her well-meaning friends, aunt, and uncle in New York and drives her Volvo to the Pine Barrens of South Jersey where she meets Louisa when she hits Louisa's grandmother. Diana is thrown into an uneasy and unsteady friendship with the brash and brainy Louisa over the course of a few days. Both truths and untruths are revealed about their pasts.

This isn't a great book in the sense that I will always remember it, but it's a good book in the sense that I enjoyed reading it. I liked learning a little bit more about the mystical state of New Jersey. Yes, I said, "mystical." DeMarco takes us into the wilds of New Jersey (yes, I said, "wilds of New Jersey" - aren't you listening?) creating an entirely different image for a state that most of us know only through watching The Sopranos or hurrying through it in an attempt to get to some place more exciting.

If this is made into a movie, as I understand it will be, I will go see it and will enjoy watching the tug of war between Diana and Louisa as well as discovering the beauty of New Jersey in scenes I hope are filmed on location.

If you want something new and different, read CRANBERRY QUEEN. It's berry good. (Yes, I said, "berry!)

This is the best book I have ever read. Maybe because I am from South Jersey and live near the Cranberry bogs where much of the story takes place. Diana whose story it is has recently lost both of her parents in a car accident. I love how the author knows that losing ones parents becomes more and more difficult as time goes on, not easier and has Diana respond appropriately. Reading about the scenery as Diana sees it in the Pine Barrens is inspiring! I highly recommend this book.

Such a profound and funny story of embracing life after loss. So many insights into love and friendship. Such an endearing, human protagonist. Such soaring language. I don't have the words to describe the beauty and emotion of this sensational, gorgeous novel. You have to read this. And she has to write more.

Other then the vivid, memorable passages describing the Pine Barrens and the accurately-detailed complexity of the unstable Louisa, this first novel hinges on momentum and the reader's curiosity rather than the content. Even the horrific tragedy quickly deflates into an obvious literary vehicle that the author uses (in vain) to animate her colorless, uninteresting protagonist, Diana. The stagnant protagonist remains stagnant throughout the entire book (there are rare moments when she says she is not numb). Is she merely a prop for us to know Rosie and Louisa? I would've enjoyed this more had I been thirteen.

I read THE CRANBERRY QUEEN in one sitting. Diana's tragedy pulled me into the story and did not let me go until I had turned the last page.

I've never suffered such a loss, but I feel the author really portrayed Diana's journey through the darkest hours of her grief and recovery with amazing insight.

I loved the New Jersey characters and learned more than I could ever imagine knowing about cranberries and their environment.

This is a character-driven book that offers rich rewards to its readers.

I hope the author will write more.

Enjoy!

When I look for a new writer. I search for certain qualities. The protagonist must be flawed and willing to be critical of themself and the antagonist must have some redeeming qualities because both characters are a reflection of the author's personality. The storyline must grab me in the beginning with a refreshing change. My favorite quality is the ability to confuse the less intelligent reader who does not get the true irony of the story. Especially when the irony hits you between the eyes on page 4. This quality is painfully obvious in the polarized reviews of this author's first novel. There are too many novels that drown in sorrow. There are also too many novels of self absorbed characters. What is truly original is using such a tragedy to display the true irony of the situation with refreshing self absorbed humor. All people are self absorbed and it is how they deal with tragedy that is truly ironic. I am looking foward to this particular novelist's next installments because their is definitely unlimited potential.

Cranberry Queen is an excellent choice for a nice summer read. The unusual setting is particularly interesting, and many of the one-liners do more than just zing, they pop off the page. Pick up a copy, take it to the beach, and have a nice 250pg vacation from your own messed up life.

Once in a while you stumble upon a book that touches something inside you and causes you to dig deep inside yourself and reflect on life.

Cranberry Queen was one such book. I picked it up over a year ago but just got around to reading it. The story centers on a woman re-adjusting her life after a horrible car accident. (She wasn't in it, but her entire family was.) The back of the book just mentions an accident, not what it was, etc, but it's all about recovery, and it had been so long since I'd gotten it, that I completely forgotten the publisher's blurb. The entire family-- her parents and brother, are killed by a drunk driver while driving to a "meet the parents" dinner with his new fiancé's folks.

What it did, while I read along as she re-created her life and her world, was to examine mine...to open up those dark fears in the corner of my mind and let them air out, so that they could be safely tucked away again. Worries have to be examined periodically, or else they become the stuff of nightmares.

Anyhow, this book encouraged some soul seraching on my part, and to my mind, that's one of the marks of a good book.

I had a whole other expectation when I decided to pick up CRANBERRY QUEEN by Kathleen DeMarco. I anticipated an easy, breezy, light-hearted read - but it ended up being so much more than that.

Diana Moore, 33, cannot get over the day her ex-boyfriend - affectionately name "The Monster" - dumped her for another woman. Life can't possibly get worst than the love of your life breaking your heart into a billion little pieces. But it does. In one shot she loses her entire family - mother, father and brother - in a horrific drunk driving accident. As if her sanity wasn't already hanging by a thread.

Starting from that point of her life, Diana becomes a fevered zombie. Feeling repressed and misunderstood by all those around her, Diana makes an impulse decision to quit her job and attempt an escape from all of her problems.

While driving, with no destination in mind, she ends up getting into her own accident, rear-ending a 70 year old grandma named Rosie riding a motorcycle. This accident proves to be a blessing in disguise, bringing her to southern NJ where she befriends Rosie's glamorous granddaughter Louisa.

As Diana waits the few days for her car to get fixed by the town's mechanic, she takes Rosie and Louisa's offer up to stay with them. Diana wavers between the pleasure of a cheerful new location and her proverbial self-condemnations. At the same time, Louisa's ex-boyfriend, who she is still in love with, finds Diana striking and mysterious. She undeniably feels the same way, making Louisa mad, but bringing to Diana the renewal and self-confidence she desperately needed.

CRANBERRY QUEEN is a quick and interesting read that is really amusing and heart-wrenching all at the same time. The characters are truly relatable and the setting is extremely vivid and colorful. It is beyond doubt an inspiring novel about the stumbling blocks of life and the triumphs of overcoming them.

Because every girl that gets slapped in the face by New York and every struggle it comes with dreams of running away for a while.
And what better place than a story book town with cranberries, hot guys on motorcycles and a wild friend that challenges rules.
I found the heroine soft, almost too passive, and perhaps that was the author's intent as she tries to manage the difficulties she's escaping from.
It's a fun read, sometimes choppy with a tidy ending, but overall worth my recommendation.