Reviews for Flood

The average rating for Flood based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-15 00:00:00 Garrett Stauffer “Flood” is a pleasure to read. It’s Canadian and it’s supposed to be a book for “younger readers,” but I consider it to be entertaining adult fiction as well. This tale is about an eleven year old boy named Andy Flynn. It’s told from a third person limited viewpoint (Andy’s). After reading only a few pages, we are quickly brought into Andy’s world, which is not, at the beginning, a happy one. Andy loses his mom and his step-dad in a flood and finds his life entirely transformed when his Aunt Mona from the east coast comes to take him home. Andy takes an immediate dislike to his stiff, severe Aunt Mona (she initially appears like a Miss Murdstone from “David Copperfield”) and he runs away from her to look for his newly discovered Dad. Andy wants a Dad and a true home, but when he finds “Vinny” living in a rooming house, he doesn’t know what to think. As I read Andy’s experiences with the ne’er-do-well Vinny, I kept wondering when Andy was going to get a proper meal! He eats doughnuts, raisins, and once he makes his Dad and himself some pancakes. But Andy, during his stay with his dad, must have been starving! And dirty! Heneghan does an amazing job of describing the world of Vinny’s rooming house – the dirty washroom, down the hall, vomited over by an elderly drunk, the cockroaches and rats crawling aroud the rooms, and the dirty kitchen and never-washed beds. Reading about Vinny, I am reminded of any number of places I’ve visited like it. Vinny’s rooming house is very real! There are thousands like them all over the country. And Vinny, the Dad? Heneghan portrays him so lovingly that you can’t dislike the man, even though he’s an awful parent, a useless breadwinner, and an entirely unreliable and untrustworthy man. Despite all these faults, Vinny is a lovable story-teller with a compassionate heart and a gentle way about him. He never finds fault with another human being, he’s always kind, and he’s well liked in the community for who he is. Before I finish, I’d better not forget some of the most memorable characters in the book: the “Sheehogue.” These are the little people, the fairies who watch over Andy. They are a clever and imaginative touch to a story that I enjoyed very much. James Heneghan has written other tales that I’d like to follow up with. “The Grave” won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, and “Wish me Luck,” won the Sheila A. Egoff Award and was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. I can see why he’s acclaimed. His writing is frank and readable, and his characters are memorable!

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-20 00:00:00 Matthew McQuay I can't tell you how many times I have read this book. It's beautiful. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. I constantly borrowed it from the library, and have been longing to own my very own copy, however whenever I go to a bookstore I'm unable to find it. Hopefully I can order it for my birthday. The story has been with me since I was 13 years old. It would be a wonderful 21st birthday present.