Customer Reviews

The Other Side of Blue

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Valerie O. Patterson's The Other Side of Blue reads like a fine oil painting. From up close one is memorized by her beautiful imagery and metaphors. Then if the reader steps back they can see the carefully crafted words and images forming a picture, a story filled with hurt, loss, and unanswered questions. And finally if one studies this delicate portrait completely, they can find a glimpse of Cyan's glimmers of hope illuminated through the many hues of blue.

Obviously a lover of color and of words, Val has used both with the skill of a fine crater to paint the story of Cyan, a young teenage girl who is struggling with the loss of her father and her anger towards her mother. Her story takes place on the Island of Curacao in the Caribbean, which I've never been to in real life, but feel like I have because o the vivid descriptions throughout The Other Side of Blue. A great read!

The death of a parent for a young person is never easy but Valerie O. Patterson has portrayed the subject in a sensitive and touching manner. Cyan - named for the color blue - has returned to the vacation island of Curacao in the West Indies. A year before, her father drowned in a boating accident so the trip holds many painful memories and questions for Cyan. She and her mother are alienated, perhaps over the death of her father but also on the suspicion that the parents were having maritial difficulties even before the drowning. To complicate matters, Cyan must host her soon-to-be step-sister, Kammi who is the perfect little princess. Patterson has addressed many common teen issues, such as, jealously between step-siblings, blended families, strained relations between parent and child, as well as the ever-present quest for answers to unanswerable questions. I believe that many young female teens would enjoy this book and it would be a good additon to school libraries.

I found this book to be rather enjoyable given it's content. I thought the author had a good way of showing us the issues that mother and daughter can face when the father dies. Cyan was like many girls I knew growing up: chubby, frustrated, didn't like her mom, missed her dad and full of assumptions. All in all, I would recommend this book, especially if you like to dive into the child/parent emotional side of things

15 year old Cyan and her artist mother have returned to the island of Curacao the year after Cyan's father's deadly boat accident. The two are barely speaking and Cyan's mother is engaged. They are joined by Cyan's beautiful and soon to be step sister.

The action is tight and contained, much like a painting, and the result a splendid wash of feeling and color. Although written for young teens it is a valid piece of literary fiction for all ages.

Fifteen-year-old Cyan and her artist mother have returned to their annual vacation beachfront rental in Curacao where Cyan's father drowned the summer before. There is no tenderness nor kindness between mother and daughter who, since the drowning, are barely able to tolerate one another. Cyan's mother appears to be moving on with her life and is already planning her remarriage. Joining them for part of their vacation is sweet, beautiful, hopeful, thirteen-year-old Kammi who is to be Cyan's step-sister. The relationships between these three women are complicated, but very believable, and form the core of this book. This is a beautifully written story of forgiveness, reconciliation and recovery against the backdrop of a summer paradise. Cyan reaches out and retreats, much like the tides, as she comes to terms with her father's death. Valerie O. Patterson writes descriptively of the colors of sea, sand and sky, and even more so about the colors of the heart. Parents should be aware "The Other Side of Blue" is written for young adults and has some sexual content appropriate for that age group, but not for younger readers.

My 13 year old dauhter picked up this book at the library in the young (teenage) area where she gets a lot of her other books. All I can say is that I am so glad I read it before she did! The cave scene is too explicit for even what I think a 15 year should read. That part of the book reinforces that if you want something you have to give something up for it! I felt the the majority of the book was tame, but I am glad I read through the whole book before allowing her to read it.

I finished Patterson's book last night, and I really, really liked it. She captures Cyan's voice beautifully. One of the pet peeves I have about children's lit, middle grade, young adult (I'm hopeless when it comes to these categories!) is that too often the voice is simply a dumbed down version of an adult voice. But Cyan's voice, her sensibility , is not dumbed down in the least. She's a complex character with an artistic soul, which is something Patterson demonstrates again and again to the reader without telling us, which I also like. Her descriptions, the things that catch her eye, the emphasis she gives things all give shape to her sensibility in very subtle ways. I like the other characters as well--Kammi, with her stubborn streak underneath the dutiful, perfect exterior; the island boys with their immature posing; the mother, the artist, so distant but so domineering a presence; the sympathetic Martia. Everyone here is completely and well-drawn and very distinct from each other.

The real strength of the book for me is the way Patterson's drawn the relationships--mother/daughter, sister/stepsister, friend/friend, surrogate mother/surrogate daughter, and eventually husband/wife. In every case, the relationship is never just one thing (one shade?) but is always a full range of emotions which ebb and flow, mix and mingle, blend and separate throughout. I like that that there are no "neat" resolutions here. Does Cyan like or dislike Kammi? Is she attracted to or repulsed by Mayur? Does she reconcile with her mother at the end or not? Like real life, these answers are never pat or staged. They remain complex and therefore somewhat unresolved, which is precisely the way they should be! I mean, after all, the whole point about the "revelation" of the father's affair with Pippa is that it (somewhat) makes ambiguous the one relationship in Cyan's life that was not, the one with her father. It was clear she idealized him, and her other relations suffered accordingly (especially the one with her mother). By having Cyan see him as the somewhat flawed man he was, and seeing the relationship of her parents in all its complexity (including a glimpse of her grandmother's relationship with her mother, which had a contributing factor in the marriage) was a wonderful "resolution" in my view. This is, after all, one of the essential shifts we make when we grow up--learning that everything and everyone around us are far more complicated than we thought at first. Patterson's captured this shift in thinking beautifully.

I also like the imagery here--the wonderful descriptions of the place, the many uses of color, the recurring metaphors (for instance the image of sea glass is spot on--something that is initially broken that gets tossed and battered by the sea and over time becomes something truly beautiful). Well, it doesn't get much better than that.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a well crafted story about growing a little wiser through experience.

Valerie O. Patterson's first published novel is a winner! The characters are interesting and her writing makes you want to get to know them better. The story is fast-paced enough to hold the reader's interest, and detailed enough to follow easily.

Kudos to Ms. Patterson! Can't wait to read her next novel.

Since her father drowned while sailing a year ago, Cyan and her mother hardly speak to each other. There are too many things Cyan can't ask her--why didn't her mother go out with her father that day, how did she meet someone else and fall in love again so quickly--for them to bridge the gap. Now they're back on the island of Curacao, where they've come every summer for years. Cyan's soon-to-be stepsister, Kammi, is also with them, and Cyan wonders if Kammi's presence will drive her further apart from her mother or help her find a way back.

The Other Side of Blue by Valerie O. Patterson explores how things left unsaid in families can hurt just as much as things said. It looks at how teens can work to find what's truly important to them and gain confidence in their own abilities instead of comparing themselves to the success of their parents. Set in a Caribbean paradise, The Other Side of Blue will have mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 14 and up talking about the nature of friendship, parental love and responsibility, communicating hurt, and moving beyond tragedy. I highly recommend it.

I love a good island drama, and Valerie Patterson's remarkable YA novel "The Other Side of Blue" delivers the kind of tropical punch that leaves me giddy with wonder. Set on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean Sea, fifteen-year-old Cyan returns with her mother to their annual summer retreat where her father mysteriously died in a boating incident the year before. Her grief has deepened to an interminable anger that no amount of sand, sun and seafood can calm. As the emotional gulf between Cyan and her mother widens, Cyan suspects there is more to her father's death than she's been told. Her mother, a renowned artist who has agreed to marry an affluent admirer, invites Cyan's future step-sister to the island, a Cinderella-like girl named Kammi who is two years Cyan's junior and everything Cyan is not (thin, sweet, and happy). The visit exacerbates Cyan's insecurities and self-defining role as the ugly step-sister. She becomes possessive, dismissive and jealous, a bratty killjoy in full bloom. Meanwhile, Kammi wins everyone over, including the island boys, while Cyan searches for more clues about her father. Holding the key to new information about the incident is Mayur, a proud local boy from a wealthy family who taunts Cyan yet pulls at her desires and insecurities. Their frosty interactions heighten Cyan's sense of confusion. When Cyan states, "I am not interesting in Mayur. Absolutely not. Maybe," she is acknowledging the depths she'll inevitably go for acceptance and comfort. While Cyan's behavior often works against her, her thoughts and actions accurately reflect a depressed teen working through a profound loss. This is a masterfully rendered portrayal of grief and the reason why this book leaves such a powerful, enduring impression. Cyan's voice is pitch perfect and the writing throughout is masterful. "The Other Side of Blue" is a shining jewel in the sand, a story of healing and hope by a gifted storyteller and skilled practitioner of human nature. Bravo, Valerie Patterson, for this stunning debut!