Customer Reviews

Ferris Beach: A Novel

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Book Review of Ferris Beach by Jill McCorkle

Ferris Beach is a book that is filled with many details of the characteristics of a small-town. It gives an intimate portrait of each character and their personality. The novel takes place in the south in the 1970's during a time of change. The young girl in the book reveals several details about her family and friends whom she is very close to. The reader can easily become attached to the characters by using a vivid imagination, which allows them to relate personally from their own experiences. The author, Jill McCorkle, touched on every subject that could possibly affect any person who reads it. Kate, whom some would call the heroine of the novel, was at an age where everything in her life could have a lasting effect. She was very impressionable. Her immediate family and her distant relatives could be considered opposites, but Kate loved them all. She was cought in a tug-of-war between what her gut feelings compelled her to do, and doing what she knew would be the right thing. That is something very hard to deal with. There are also friends and neighbor's who contribute the uneasy atmosphere of the community. There are a few twists and turns in the story which capture the reader even more intensely. This story can make the reader sad, or be cheery at the same time. Jill McCorkle has a way with words which allows the reader to feel those emotions. Many have said that she is the finest writer, not just in the south, but anywhere. She is real and authentic with her writing. She expresses real situations, real emotions, and real human nature. The characterizations in Ferris Beach are very well developed and may sometimes resemble someone we know. All of these aspects summarize why this is a great book to read and recommend to others.

The first time I read this book I was still young, but I loved it. The way Jill McCorkle potrays each character so realisticly is amazing and wonderful at the same time. This is my tenth time reading it and each time I read it it gets better and better. I recommened this book to anyone who loves realistic fiction storys that make you feel like you see the characters to the supermarket tomarrow. I was touched the way I could relate to the main character (Kate). Please take time to read this book.

Reviewer- Ashley from Franklin, TN nited States This book focuses on the life of a girl in Southern North Carolina. Her mother, a well-cultured woman from Boston, tries to make the girl Kate have the kind of lifestyle that she had. Her father, a layed-back easy-going man, lets Kate choose whichever lifestyle she wishes to have. This book is full of pain and sadness; heartache and happiness. I recommend this book to teenagers, as a teenager, I feel I can relate to it and hope that others who read this book will also like it and relate to it.

Kate and Misty are best friends who are on the fringes of their school's social arena, but there is no feeling that they stick together only because they can't find anyone else. They are true best friends who enjoy each other's company.

Kate has a large red birthmark on her face that she is extremely self-conscious and shy about.

There is a mystery about Kate's beautiful cousin Angela, that never really gets resolved. Angela's mother died while giving birth to Angela, and Kate's father Fred (who is Angela's uncle) and his mother raised Angela. Angela's mother never said who the father was. (One of the other readers thought it might have been Fred himself, whis is an intriguing thought and made me go back and read the book with a new eye.)

Angela is the right age to be Kate's mother if she'd have had her at age seventeen, which causes much speculation and yearning on the part of Kate, who feels stifled by her much older and old-fashioned mother. It always seemed to me that Fred was in love with Angela, who is young and beautiful. Certain his plain, dowdy wife Cleva seems to be jealous and insecure when Angela is around. Kate yearns to be as beautiful as Angela. Misty's mother is a great beauty. Much of the story seems to center on Kate's yearning for physical beauty and the lives of those who both have it and lack it, but eventually Kate learns a more balanced view of this. The beautiful women seem to have as hard a time with their love relationships as the plainer ones do.

This story takes place in the South in the 1970s, when there was a huge gap between the old ways and the new. Bigotry is touched on in several places.

I thought this book was the best! I loved all of the mystery that Kate and Misty dwelled upon through out the book. Merle sounded like such a sweet boy. Misty's older brother and Kate sounded so cute together. When tragedy strikes in Misty's family everyone in the whole plot is effected. Angela sounded nice sometimes, but then turned around and became a real annoying jerk. Angela had a lot of problems. Misty was my favorite character because she reminds me of someone who is the ultimate human being in my estimation. She was spunky and loud. Cheerful, and sad. She knew how to deal with her life. THIS WAS AN AWESOME BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

This coming-of-age novel packs a surprising punch. McCorkle deftly shows her ability to build a large set of characters, to let them loose, and to have them behave believably. She captures a small Southern town in the midst of social change. Integration is on hand; a Toyota dealer now sits alongside a Ford dealer on the pike; a new high school is being built. We follow McCorkle's main character, Katie, through childhood and early adolescence, to her first love. As she makes her way in the world, she learns about loyalty, betrayal, and dishonesty, and she understands that adults make mistakes. The key is how to deal with one's mistakes and what to learn from them.

This highly evocative novel uses the popular songs of the 1970s and earlier decades as its soundtrack. It fills the reader's mind with the sights, tastes, and smells of the decade. It quietly achieves a high level of literary success.

It's such a shame that this book is out of print. The premise is deceptively simple, at least at first glance. It is narrated by Kate, who is growing up in 1970's North Carolina. She and the other characters are so well-rendered, so realistic in speech and action, that nothing about this book seems contrived or forced. It gives the reader a look at change and at second chances that come in unexpected and sometimes unwanted ways. It's also about realizing that people and things are not always what they appear. It's about growing up. This is a slower, character-driven novel, both humorous and sad. I think teenagers and adults would enjoy it.

This book seems so real. It's about a girl named Kate. Kate's cousin Angela is a very mysterious young woman. Nobody knows who her father is ,her mother died when she was born. Sometimes you think Kate's father ,Fred, might be her father, and other times I tend to think maybe Angela and Fred are secretly in a relationship. That secret is never unvailed. This book tells about Kate's teenage years and all the good and bad things that happen. It keeps you turning pages rapidly, i would deffinently suggest reading this book!

This book shows a prime example of life through a teenager's eyes. It shows their thoughts, their feelings, and other things most adults just can't understand about kids. Kate shows how most kids her age are feeling. This is a wonderful book for all ages.

I loved the book, and I found Kate and Misty to be complete examples of perfect best friends. The girls were both outcasts, and found happiness in being only together. I identified with Kate so much that I almost believed I was her. Jill McCorkle did an excellent job with this book; I couldn't put it down.