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Julie B. (Culver, IN)
A Fireproof Home for the Bride
While I enjoyed this book, I have to say that it started out very slow. I had a hard time getting into it at first and unfortunately, I really didn't like Emmy at first. I think I was annoyed by her naive nature. There was so much going on, but by the end I felt the author tied it together well. I would definitely recommend it to a book club, as I think there are several topics that would make good conversation.
Sarah W. (San Diego, CA)
Historical Coming of Age in Minnesota
As Emmy Nelson finds her way during the late 1950s in a Minnesota farming community, I found the setting and the cultural details surrounding the strict Lutheran lifestyle to be most interesting. However, I felt Emmy to be somewhat flat as a character. Although plenty of awful things happen to her she never really seems to struggle. Perhaps her flat affect is due to her upbringing, but I found it hard to mourn her losses or to root for her as she attempts to find her way. It's not as much of a love story as the jacket description implies.
Karen L. (Wilton, IA)
Slow start to story
It was very difficult to get interested in this book. It didn't get really interesting until the last 100 pages. If the first two thirds of the book had been as good as the last third of the book I would have given it 4 stars. It captures the time 1950s and place mid west very well. It does a good job of presenting sexism and the expected roles women were supposed to play in the 1950s. It is a coming of age story as the main character grows up in a difficult family with many secrets. There is also a larger story that involves racism, the Klan and her family. I think it would be good for book clubs if they were
…more persistent enough to read the whole book. (less)I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. The beginning was very slow. I put it down to read other thing several times. And many elements of the story didn't seem believable to me, I think because so many different major events were crammed into the story. It seemed like too much happened to this one girl.
Angela J. (Highlands Ranch, CO)
A Fireproof Home for the Bride
I too felt this book was slow going at the beginning. While Amy Scheibe is a promising author; I thought the main character wasn't truly fleshed out. It took a great leap of imagination to accept that such a sheltered & naïve girl with no college experience could become a reporter. I also felt the author had a checklist in her mind: date rape, check, immigration, check, racism, check. I was surprised she didn't have a gay character, and maybe a developmental disabled person to complete the list. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone.
Laura P. (Atlanta, GA)
A Fireprrof Home for the Bride
Amy Scheibe's tale of racial and ethnic discrimination in the upper Midwest of the 1950s is a great read for the last 100 pages - but the first 267 are a slog, poorly paced with wooden characters and little plot direction. Is it a coming of age story? A love story? A murder mystery? Hard to tell -and since the author sets up all of these possibilities, the direction of the story is unclear and the plot has little sense of dramatic tension. Scheibe finally decides which story she wants to emphasize and the book ends well, but had I not been reading this to review it, I would never have read that far.
Teresa R. (Evansville, IN)
Slow to begin
I thought this book was off to a very slow start... Took over 100 pages for mr to become interested. Writing was good, but I felt the story developed very, very slowly. Could have been the time of year, but I truly felt it was a very slow read.
Leslie G. (Peabody, MA)
Interesting but Flawed
As someone who was a child in the fifties, I found the references to the music and styles of the times brought back memories of my early years. However, while aspects of the novel were engaging, I felt the character of Emmy was problematic. It was hard to believe she had the personality to draw people to be so interested in her. Even though some aspects of the book were described in almost too much detail, description explaining Emmy's charisma was scant. For example, would a teenager with only a high school education and no journalistic background be so readily invited by an experienced newspaperman to be his
…more cub reporter as Jim asked Emmy to be?
Over-drawn figures of speech were much too frequent. At one point Jim warns Emmy about clichés. He tells her "to beat them out" of her writing. Scheibe would do well to heed the advice of her character's mouth piece and try to strip away some of the "purple prose" in her book. It serves to distract the reader from the content. (less)
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