Ebb & Flow vs Season of Styx Mallone

                    Ebb & Flow                vs        The Season of Styx Mallone

Vanessa and Debbie: Well I wanted to like Styx Malone, I really did.  At first I thought I was reading a re-telling of One Red Paper Clip but kid style.  But what I found was a story that was all over the place and IMHO, not well written.  It was a struggle just to finish.  I really did want to like it.... Then I read Ebb & Flow and my faith in a good story returned.  Written in verse, it is a tale of a student who made some bad choices after hooking up with some “bad kids” and how he spent a summer at his Gramma’s place learning to take ownership of his actions.  I think the Gramma is the real hero of this story - she loves her grandson unconditionally but doesn’t let him get away with anything. For me, there is no contest....Ebb&Flow for the win!

Norma: Started Ebb and Flow, got right into the story and format and finished the book quickly.  It was an easy read in a format that would appeal to young readers.  The story was very engaging.  I was excited to get into reading The Season of Styx Malone.  I started the book and kept waiting for it to amp up but it dragged on and on.  I had a hard time finishing it as it lost its appeal.  My vote is for Ebb and Flow for the win!

Kim: Read Heather Smith’s Ebb & Flow first because I am usually not a huge fan of books in verse (although the sun and her flowers by rupi kaur turned my world rotating in a different direction) and I thought I would get it out of the way and get to Styx Malone - the good book. Wow, I could not have been more wrong!

Ebb & Flow was beautiful in so many ways and dealt with heavy, deep themes that would serve up delicious discussion/conversations with teens. The relationship between Jett and his “cotton candy granny” is tender, nonjudgmental and just what he needs to redirect him to a better path. She allows Jett the freedom to look at who he is and who he wants to be. “... Junior made Jett do lots of bad things. Grandma looked right through me. Great story… if you like fairy tales.” I read it twice because it was so well written. 

The Season of Styx Malone was simple and underdeveloped. I was hoping to love Styx and see all his complexities. None of that happened. 

My vote - hands down - is Ebb & Flow. 

Joelle: Okay, this is going to be an unpopular thought: I thought Ebb and Flow was a bit pretentious with the verse format.  I think many of the truly beautiful lines: “They came like arrows shot from a bow.  Fast, mean and straight for the heart.  If only they came like boomerangs instead.  Boomerangs go back where they came from.” “...When I was a good person; when people with no teeth made me sad,” could all have been just as beautiful in prose.  So I thought the verse style made it rather gimmicky, but it clearly couldn’t stretch into a prose novel.  The riff was very Touching Spirit Bear, with a grandmother and a protagonist once removed from violence.  Growing up I knew a kid like Junior; he lived in a shack, his dad beat him, he was violent and tried to push his pain onto the world around him, and reading Ebb and Flow I could only see him and wonder what ever became of him, if anything.  It was personally affecting and the language was occasionally gorgeous.  Even if the ending was a little unsatisfying, I don’t know how else it could have happened; it ended like real life--messy and more than a little unfinished.  I was glad by the end though that Jett hadn’t done all of the terrible things you imagine all the way along. 

Season of Styx Malone was empty.  I had no real feelings for any of the characters; I didn’t care what happened to them.  The whole thing seemed so unlikely, and I had difficulty imagining their world because it was so simple.  I enjoyed the brief appearance of Pixie but that was it.  I definitely have to vote with Ebb and Flow for sure!