Review: "A Blue So Dark" by: Holly Schindler

A Blue So Dark by: Holly Schindler
Released: May 1st, 2010
Publisher: Flux
Age: Young-Adult
Pages: 288
Overall:
Recommend Level: Med-High
Challenge: 2010 Debut Author (The Story Siren)
Summary: "Terrified that her mother, a schizophrenic and an artist, is a mirror that reflects her own future, sixteen-year-old Aura struggles with her overwhelming desires to both chase artistic pursuits and keep madness at bay.
As her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet keeps drawing Aura toward the depths of her own imagination—the shadows of make-believe that she finds frighteningly similar to her mother’s hallucinations.
Convinced that creative equals crazy, Aura shuns her art, and her life unravels in the process."



Review: First I will say that this book is set in Springfield, MO the city where I currently live and have lived for all of my life...so I was a little critical on the geographical part of this book. Such as they high school in the book "Crestview High". There isn't a Crestview; we have a Central, Kickapoo, Glendale, Parkview, and Hillcrest. So I'm going to assume that Schindler combined all of the schools into one. "Parkview + Hillcrest = Crestview" and in the book, Crestview is next to a KMart....Kickapoo is next to a Kmart...etc. 
Kum & Go, Price Cutter, K-Mart, Wal-Mart...etc are all real places in Springfield, MO. However (which should be obvious) Zeller's Photography is not. She's a fictional character. Even the street "National" where the "yellow stick art sculpture" is is real. If you live here, you may call them the yellow sticks or the giant French fries. I have no idea what it's actually called. So this book literally felt like home.
Now on to the actual review...
From page one I loved the way this book was written and loved how it moved along quickly. However, because it did move so quickly, you would be in chapter 16 and it didn't feel like a whole lot has went on. Though, in "reality" a lot did happen. Not only with Aura, but her mother as well.
I felt for Aura the entire time. I know what it's like to be around someone you love who you can't control and lives in their own world. Though not to the extent of her mother's illness.
I wish we got to know more of the characters like: Jeremy, Janny, Nell, her dad and half-sister and even just other kids at school. But with the length of the book I felt I knew Aura and her mother plenty enough since the book is focused mainly on them.
I want to find something bad to say just to balance it out, but I can't. I really really liked this book and I can't wait to see what else Holly Schindler has coming up. (She has a book, Playing Hurt, listed on Goodreads. It sounds completely different from A Blue So Dark.)


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(Check out the full list of 2010 Debut Authors I have lined up to read as well as the reviews of the ones I've already read. Just click here!)