A Review -Write My Name Across the Sky: A Novel

Write My Name Across the Sky: A Novel
Barbara O'Neal (Author)
A Review

Write My Name Across the Sky is about three women connected as family. As they are all three going through growing pains, they learn lessons and strength in helping each other. The story is intriguing.

I am hesitant to read another work by this author though. As a personal preference I enjoy using the part of my brain that fills in the blanks when I read. This author spent so much time on every single detail you have no room for imagination. There is so much detail it actually slows, and even at times disrupts the action and movement of the characters and the story. Often the author refers to how hard life is as a woman but only one character is ever engaged in such a situation. Having all female characters and having them all have this thought and then only having one moment where it is explainable caused me a bit of an eye roll. Another hard-to-get past annoyance was the repeated use of a word or term to exaggerate the meaning, this is just poor writing. If one character spoke this way it might be fine, but even in the narration the repeated use of a word for example, really, really, really was used. I feel like if you are going to take the time to write a novel you should take the time to find words that express the situation and using the word three times in a row is only for extremely rare situations.

 I might be interested to watch this author grow in her work, if that is her goal. The story had much heart and lovely quotables. I thoroughly enjoy the insight of the older woman as she continues to find meaning in life. Going through my own growing pains as my children move to away from the constant neediness it was inspiring to read about the constant growing, we are all going through all the time. This story also made me pause to think about what it might be to have generational wealth. That regardless of money or status or monetary need we are all humans and have been hurt and oversee our own successes. I also enjoyed that while love and relationships were a main theme throughout the novel it didn’t turn into smut, and I could even share this book with my teenage daughter without creating any awkwardness.

Overall, it is a decent read and something I don’t usually read.