The Wings of a Falcon by Cynthia Voigt

Plot: Two boys are growing up on an island, ruled over by a cruel man whose name they do not know. He is called the Damall, and all the boys fear him. The boys resolve to seek their lives elsewhere, but first, the boy and his companion, Griff, need to get off the island. And second, the boy needs a name...

Comments: I really enjoyed reading this book. I would call it an adventure story, but not exactly fantasy. There are no fire-breathing dragons or magical spells, just...adventures. The plot was really all over the place in this story. It definitely resembled life; it felt like a lot of different stories all tied together, and none of the stories has an ending. The plot would move on to a different story without telling you what happened in the last story, the unfinished story. As I said, it's definitely like life, but I'm not sure I completely appreciated that part. I would have liked knowing more about the fates of other people instead of just the main characters'.

The characters are difficult to imagine, both physically and mentally - meaning I had trouble seeing them as people instead of characters. They felt two-dimensional; I never really felt like there were real people in the stories. No one was described well enough for that - and I don't mean I want a paragraph long description of every new character walking into the story. But descriptions build up over time, and for this story they didn't.

The story is well written and interesting, and I had trouble putting it down. I didn't understand the ending, however. Well, not exactly the ending, but close enough. It was confusing when the point of views switched (especially since there was no indication of a switch) and I felt like things happened too fast, too suddenly. For the third and last time, it was a lot like life in that you didn't know what was going to happen and not everything was happy and not everything worked out. But I didn't think it was necessary. I did eventually appreciate it and understand (I think) the reasons for it, but I'm still not certain I completely liked it.

Rating: I shall rate this book a seven out of ten.