Island of the Blue Dolphins Book Review

You thought I was lying. 174 pages that should have taken one or two days at the most took more than a month. I could have given up, but I refused.

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Problems

In short, Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins is about a native woman whose tribe leaves its island home, and she is left on the island for many moons and suns and seasons. And that's the whole story. Granted, there is the emotionless telling of why she was left alone on the island. There are her experiences with the native wildlife. There is the fear of otter hunters who have come before, violently. There are tsunamis and earthquakes. All in all, for some reason, you don't care. Perhaps this is due to execution or style, but there is an extreme lack of emotion that you feel and that the woman expresses.

Imagination

It's the author's job to tell the story and the reader's job to imagine it. The idea is that the writer provides the tools and the audience takes it from there, but Dolphins leaves you desiring more, and not in a good way. There were moments in which I wanted to feel emotion, but I felt nothing. Maybe this book does a good job with children in elementary school, but it certainly does not fair well with adults, at least not one like myself.

2/10