Reviews for Toads and Diamonds

The average rating for Toads and Diamonds based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-06 00:00:00 Regina Sanders When I was younger I had a favorite picture book called "The Talking Egg" by Robert D. San Souci. Two girls are told to throw things over their shoulders, one girl is rewarded with jewels, and her less the kind sister, frogs and snakes. My love for that picture book is what drew me to this book in the first place. The intial concept in this book was original and beauitful. It discusses the meaning of "gifts" and "curse" and how, sometimes, our hardest trials might be our greatest blessings. That is something we would all do well to remember. The first issue I had with this book was the "plodding" nature of the writing. Some authors have the ability to whisk you away into imagined lands and you float merrily along, hardly passing the time or story. Others, such as this book, sometimes leave you feeling like your glooshing through a mud pit. I don't know what makes the difference. The setting was a little confusing to me. It was loosly based on Indian (as in India) history, but with little explanation I had a hard time understanding the roles of characters. There were two competing religions - Hindu and Islam - and occasionally the author seemed to be building up to this great understanding that could arise from looking at the beauty of both religions, but she always backed away from it. Infact, that was how most of the book went. Whenever I thought we were building up to some grand understanding, the author quickly moved away and left me hanging. There were too many unfinished plots and too many unreal scenarios. I think the most moving moment, when the author was really finding her stride, was at the beginning when Tana was describing her feelings and how she was so undeserving. I felt that scene had so much emotion, and so much I could relate too, that it brought tears to my eyes. Yet, the author didn't build on that. Nor were her characters consistent in their thoughts and actions. The romance plots, which could have been great, were also left unsatisfactorily hanging. And, Tana had been so worried about the villagers, but it never told us what happened to them. Then, when the sister's meet, they both seemed to act so out of character. Tana's character progressed a little more than Dhiribani's, but still, it wasn't good enough. Initially, I was going to give it three stars, but the more I thought it about it, I realized it had too many flaws. Too many things lacking. I think part of the problem was the author tried to take too many plot twists and tie them neatly into one story. Better to focus on just one "life lesson." Good initial concept though. What would you do if you had been "blessed" to speak toads and snakes? Personally, I would probably never open my mouth again for fear of dying of fright. Lol.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-09-16 00:00:00 Robert Maia AWESOME IDEA. Toads and Diamonds always seemed like a really unjust fairytale, with a lot of ecological and economic problems to boot. One sister is polite to the faerie/goddess and is in turn granted with a gift: jewels and flowers fall from her mouth every time she speaks. The other sister is rude--well, at least abrasive--and gets snakes and amphibians instead. So the author does some really great things: she tells story from the points of view of sisters who don't hate each other, though they have contrasting personalities, and she sets it in India, where snakes have a different (valued!) cultural significance. Tomlinson thinks through each girl's gifts in an exercise of subversion--gems aren't so good with greedy government officials, and snakes aren't so bad when you've got a pandemic spread from the overpopulation of rats. So far so good. Where are the problems then? The novel is told in alternating chapters, and Diribani's half of the story gets horribly boring halfway through, when she gets to the palace and her activities/social life is strictly monitored. Tana's point of view was far more engaging--she seemed the more genuine voice, one of survival and street smarts. And each girl had their own fellow to pine for--Tana for Kalyan, and Diribani for Prince Zahid--and they pined and pined. And in the end, they don't even get the guys, so, yeah, grr. Plus, it never came up that, the amount of gemstones Diribani spit out, it might be really bad for the gem industry! Inflation, yo! At least Tana's snakes were meant to repopulate the ones that the evil governor had mass murdered, for ecological balance.