Review: Being Light by Helen Smith

ISBN #: 978-0956517036

Page Count: 223

Copyright: 2000

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

Roy Travers is swept away by a freak gust of wind while trying to install a bouncy castle in Brockwell Park, south London.  Sheila, his wife, can't understand why he hasn't found his way back home.  She begins to suspect that Roy has been abducted by aliens and enlists the help of Mrs. Fitzgerald's Bureau of Investigation to find him.  Sheila travels to Kent with Alison, a private detective.  Together they build a missing persons advertisement out of pebbles on a beach, hoping it will seen by the aliens who have taken Roy.  But Roy was not taken by aliens.  The truth is far stranger.

Mandy's Review:

Cover

I noticed that there were several different covers for this book online.  I chose this one because I liked it the most.  It's the one that most relates to the story behind it.

Plot

There was a lot going on in this book.  But, after awhile, you can see how everything is connected.

To me, the main story was between Sheila and Roy.  Roy floats off in a bouncy castle one day and crash lands on Sylvia's land, called Paradise, thinking he has died and gone to Heaven.  Sheila, then, spends the rest of the novel looking for him, involving a slew of other colorful, slightly strange, characters.

Main Characters

Roy - Contentedly married to Sheila.  He often shows his love through doing things instead of saying how he feels.

Sheila - Roy's wife.  I felt she sort of took Roy for granted, always thinking he'd be there.  She did turn a little loopy during her search.

Sylvia - Lonely.  Has run away from the circus with an elephant.  Lives on the coast and receives very little company.

Jeremy - Sylvia's brother.  Quit the circus at the prompting of his sister.  He is always involved in one cause or another, which eventually leads to his downfall.

Overall

In the beginning, Ms. Smith introduced the characters pretty quickly and it seemed chaotic and disjointed.  However, as the story progressed, the pieces started fitting together in some semblance of order.

This just wasn't one of my favorites.  The chaos in the beginning made my mind feel like it was zig-zagging back and forth... and even though it started making sense after awhile, the magic of getting lost in a story was gone for me.