CBR 16 Bingo – Liberate: The whole premise of the book is a daughter trying to liberate her father from prison.
About a year and a half ago, my mom (LanierHgts) wrote this review. In it, she promised this “You should soon see a review from her about this book but you get mine first. Then you can read the book and decide who is right.” I would just like to say, I never agreed to do this, and I got sidetracked and forgot to review it until I saw this years bingo and the “liberate” category reminded me.
This book, which is based off a true story, tells the story of Trell, a 14 year old who is determined to get her father out of prison, since he has been wrongly convicted of a crime. She works with a burned-out reporter and a young lawyer to take down the criminal-justice system and get her father back.
Overall, the story was interesting and an important one to tell. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. The book, while advertised as YA, read more like a middle-grade novel, but some of the themes and language were probably too dark to be considered middle-grade. Because of this, I feel like it fit a weird middle ground in terms of the age it was intended for, and, while I am normally open to reading books meant for different age groups, the writing style in this one made it clear it was meant for younger kids.
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the writing style, I loved the story and the book as a whole. It conveyed a very meaningful message and I think its really important that it was written and is out in the world. Also, once I got over the writing style, the plot was gripping and I did enjoy it immensely. I’d give it 3.75 stars, taking off 0.25 for the writing style.