Books

Pen Pal

  • May 22, 2022
  • Francesca Forrest
  • 970 responses.

Unlimited Pen Pal - by Francesca Forrest - Pen Pal, Pen Pal Em is a twelve year old girl in a floating community off the Gulf Coast Kaya is a political activist in a terrifying prison They are pen pals Em s wistful message in a bottle finds its way to Kaya im

  • Title: Pen Pal
  • Author: Francesca Forrest
  • ISBN: 9781494264635
  • Page: 429
  • Format: Paperback

Unlimited Pen Pal - by Francesca Forrest, Pen Pal, Francesca Forrest, Pen Pal Em is a twelve year old girl in a floating community off the Gulf Coast Kaya is a political activist in a terrifying prison They are pen pals Em s wistful message in a bottle finds its way to Kaya imprisoned above the molten lava of the Ruby Lake Both are living precarious lives at the mercy of societal natural and perhaps supernatural forces beyond their control Em is a twelve year ol Unlimited Pen Pal - by Francesca Forrest - Pen Pal, Pen Pal Em is a twelve year old girl in a floating community off the Gulf Coast Kaya is a political activist in a terrifying prison They are pen pals Em s wistful message in a bottle finds its way to Kaya im

  • Unlimited Pen Pal - by Francesca Forrest
    429 Francesca Forrest
Pen Pal

About "Francesca Forrest"

  1. Francesca Forrest

    Francesca Forrest Is a well-known author, some of his books are a fascination for readers like in the Pen Pal book, this is one of the most wanted Francesca Forrest author readers around the world.

970 Comments

  1. Reread Definitely one of the best books I read last year.Em Baptiste, twelve years old, throws a bottled letter into the Gulf Sea It ends up at an island on the western edge of the Pacific rim, in the hands of a woman suspended over a volcano as a political prisoner Kaya, lonely and desperately worried, writes back, and so begins an unlikely correspondence that has consequences rippling outward.Em lives in Mermaid s Hands, a small community of floating houseboats rising and falling on the gulf t [...]

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  2. Pen Pal is the sort of book that people say defies categorization Its settings are just this side of fantastical, its tone almost magical it certainly doesn t feel out of place in the Indie Fantasy Bundle where I encountered it And yet, it takes place firmly within a world very much like our own, with the Internet and global news and international tensions, where those who live outside the mainstream are viewed with suspicion, and where most of the magics are the fleeting, everyday sorts we crea [...]

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  3. An utterly engrossing read, I tore through it in one day because I couldn t bear to put it down The ending felt abrupt to me, but I think that was intentional life doesn t wrap up with a neat, tidy bow, and the way this story ends keeps me pondering it and mulling it over in my mind and heart, whereas otherwise I might have closed the book in satisfaction and moved on.I love the way mythology and magic is woven so naturally into the story, never overt or blatant, but shimmering in the background [...]

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  4. I received this book from GoodReads FirstReads program.A casual exchange between Em, a 12 yr old girl residing in a floating community off the Gulf Coast and Kaya, a political activist who is imprisoned over a volcano, that turned into something big, grand even a friendship that is bound by loyalty and faith Pen Pal is definitely a read that s going to stay with me for a long time.Em sends a message in a bottle that the universe so intricately orchestrated to end up at the hands of Kaya Being a [...]

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  5. A young girl in a floating community off the Gulf Coast throws a message in a bottle into the ocean, and it makes its way across the world, to a political prisoner in solitary confinement on a platform suspended over a lake of fire Letters travel back and forth, through the ocean and the post office and fishing boats, through mass media and tied to the leg of a crow Em, the girl, confides in Kaya her worries about her older brother, who s in jail for theft Kaya, the activist, tries to explain he [...]

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  6. I had the great privilege of reading Pen Pal in manuscript form and fell in love with it I don t know when last I read a book that moved me across such a range of emotions Because of my strong initial response to Pen Pal, I was actually afraid to read it in book form I was afraid I wouldn t be as wowed the second time around, knowing the denouement I needn t have worried The book had just as much charm the second and third times that I read it The beauty and power of Pen Pal lies not so much in [...]

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  7. Endearing, magical and endlessly imaginative a perfect example of the compassion we should all strive to emulate Pen Pal is the story of two girls from less than ordinary situations who are brought together by a massage in a bottle Is there a fantastic way to make a friend I certainly can t think of one.I am a huge fan of anything that paints women girls in a strong and positive light where they can be seen as capable of changing the world To my immeasurable delight, this novel encompasses thos [...]

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  8. Em is a child of water, living in a floating community on the Gulf coast Kaya is a child of fire, imprisoned half a world away above a volcano.They need each other, though they don t at first know it.Em believes in the Seafather who watches over her people Kaya isn t sure whether she believes in the Ruby Lady, but she was arrested for holding a ceremony for her, just the same.When Em s wistful message in a bottle reaches Kaya, their two stories become entwined, and the result is a numinous story [...]

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  9. Magical demirealism at its finest, this story is a delight to the animistically inclined Having grown up on the Gulf Coast, I have a particular wistfulness towards Mermaid s Hands I would have loved for there to be such a place near my coast So much magical than what we did have But I still appreciated the nod to local traditions that were there As a child, I too tried the message in a bottle thing, and I did get a reply, but with less spectacular results But I think my favorite thing about thi [...]

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  10. I enjoyed the plot of this book There was just enough drama to keep things going.Unfortunately, the style of this book didn t work There are letters and journal entries from various characters While each character did have a unique voice, I did not appreciate all the deliberate grammar and spelling mistakes at least I assume them to be deliberate Also this style took away from the drama and got in the way of the story I wanted to quit reading so many times.One other thing about the style of the [...]

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  11. Pen Pal, by Francesca Forrest, is YA in the way The Book Thief is YA, in the way The Giver is YA It is YA of the best kind It crosses genre, and it crosses age boundaries It s a book anyone will pick up and be changed by The characters are fully realized, the story never wobbles The writing walks that so difficult to find line of invisibility, in that the reader never feels the author poking her nose into the story It belongs to the characters And while the prose are pristine, they are never fla [...]

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  12. This book works on so many levels The characterizations are multi faceted and believable most especially in the main characters, Em and Kaya, but also in the supporting ones and their circumstances are at once unusual and engaging The two cultures Francesca Forrest constructs here, both besieged by the modern world, each with its own unique mythology, have commonalities that help bind Em and Kaya in friendship Yet, despite the way the narrative switches back and forth between the two, it s never [...]

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  15. This review is reposted from booksandtea 2016 02 pen pal francesca forrest stunning self published novel Sometimes, a book comes along that satisfies you completely its characters make your heart happy, its themes make your soul happy, and its prose makes your head happy.These books are rare Pen Pal is one of them.The central conceit is simple Em is a young girl living in Mermaid s Hands, a squatter s community on the Gulf Coast, who sets a message in a bottle adrift hoping to find a pen pal But [...]

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  16. Pen Pal is part of a boxed set, Light in the Darkness Let me just say I haven t been disappointed in any of the books in this set so far and I am over hallway through This is a great alternate reality distopian ish story I really liked the writing style The story is told in letters and diary entrees I give it five stars There is no swearing or sexual content I can recommend for teens and up.

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  17. One of the best books I ve ever read.These are the first lines Dear person who finds my message,I live in a place called Mermaid s Hands All our houses rest on the mud when the tide is out, but when it comes in, they rise right up and float.They re all roped together, so we don t lose anyone I like Mermaid s Hands, but sometimes I wish I could unrope our house and see where it might float to.Em is the child who places this letter into a bottle and tosses it into the sea Mermaid s Hands is an ima [...]

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  18. Pen Pal defies classification If pressed, I d call it literary young adult, but it s than that There are some fantasy elements, mostly in the form of folk magic, but the whole book has a slightly dreamlike quality, in spite of the urgency of the story Em is a thirteen year old girl living in Mermaids Hands, a floating village off the gulf coast She sends out a message in a bottle, which eventually reaches Kaya, a young political prisoner being held in a hut on a platform suspended over an activ [...]

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  19. Pen Pal by Francesca Forrest caught my eye in Toronto in 2015 The idea of pen pals connecting and inspiring each other to achieve great things sounded promising, but in the end it didn t quite deliver.Since the story is told in via the journals Em and Kaya write as well as the letters they exchange it was hard to gain a true outside perspective regarding the causes they were fighting for I understood why each girl individually was fighting, but I didn t understand how their fights connected to t [...]

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  20. What a charming book My first exposure to Forrest was through her poetry here s one , and I half count her blog as poetry too she has a knack not just for finding the tiny magics in everyday things, but also for finding just the right phrasing to make you feel like you were there too, and itch to pass it along to your own circle look look what I found today isn t it neat Which is to say I had no idea that Forrest wrote fiction, but it feels like a natural extension of her other writing, and I lo [...]

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  21. Emlee Baptiste is a 12 year old girl living in Mermaid s Hand, a floating community steeped in tradition, off of the Gulf Coast The people of Mermaid s Hand consider themselves sea people, protected by the Seafather, who lives under the sea People in Em s community believe that the Seafather provides everything they need and what they need will come to them, brought in by the tide Emlee loves her heritage but she longs to visit the seapeople under the waves or explore life on dry land Em places [...]

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  22. 4.5 stars and I hope I can re read with a book club one day Normally I m not a fan of stories told as a series of letters and diary entries, as this one is, but I think it absolutely works here The voices are distinct and the differences between what is in the letters and what s in the personal diary entries just echo the overarching themes These themes include the interpretation of others actions, making decisions based on your own beliefs vs what others think, and learning how to trust when y [...]

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  23. I can t recommend the book highly enough It s the story of two unlikely pen pals who turn out to have a lot in common and, though living a world apart, actually end up helping each other in times of crisis.Em is a girl in a marginalized community on the southern U.S coast think Beasts of the Southern Wild who puts a message in a bottle The message is ultimately received by Kaya, a young woman in a place that is an amalgam of Asian countries where minorities have struggled to preserve their langu [...]

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  24. This book was part of an Indie Fantasy Bundle from storybundle The narrative has the form of an epistolary book, interspersed with journal entries, and follows the points of views of twelve years old Em, living in a seabound small community on the Mexican Gulf and an adult woman, Kaya, imprisoned on a Asian isle volcano for her political views Through a fateful message in a bottle, they start corresponding I had a little hard time accepting how the message in a bottle reached a person detained o [...]

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  25. Review copy final copy from authorThere are several appealing things about this novel First, the storyline is interesting A young girl from a small community has sent out a message in a bottle The community she lives is one that floats on the sea and has a close relationship with the water The message ends up with a young woman in a unique prison She is hanging above a volcano This is a part that was a bit hard to swallow at first Over time that was and believable, but initially, it was diffic [...]

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  26. Pen Pal by Francesca Forrest is one of those books that I enjoy when I want something thought provoking to escape from my usual thriller, mystery mode This work could be a coming of age story It certainly has these elements as the young girl in the story faces difficulties and learns and grows I love the portrayal of her innocent, yet wise for her age ideology Pen Pal is also sends a message about culture clash, political unrest, and religious freedom The author does an awe inspiring job of link [...]

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  27. I ve always enjoyed epistolary novels, and this is a particularly good one Told primarily through the words letter and diary of Em, a 12 year old girl who lives in a floating community on the Gulf Coast, the story begins as she one day sends a message in a bottle This message is answered by Kaya, a political prisoner on an unnamed Pacific island, held captive in a terrifying prison suspended over a volcano A friendship develops between the two, and ultimately they help each other It is a compell [...]

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  28. This is the beautifully written story of an unlikely friendship and the consequences of that friendship, told through letters, journal entries and news articles Em, who lives in a floating community on the Gulf of Mexico, and Kaya, a political prisoner living in a prison suspended over a volcano, are complex, fully realized characters trying to make sense of their place in their communities and their communities places in the larger societies they are both part of and outside of The author shows [...]

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  29. I really didn t expect to like this book as much as I did I must harbor some unconscious bias towards epistolary fictions, or maybe after writing a thesis on them, I d rather limit my interactions with them However, this book was charmingly written from multiple perspectives, but the two primary were refreshing The pace at which the book switched between them was absolutely perfect, neither choppy nor dull One of the main point of view characters, Em, is an eleven year old, whose voice was refre [...]

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  30. Holy crap I am floored I just finished reading Pen Pal It was SO GOOD.Pen Pal is a novel in letters that starts when an intrepid 12 year old girl named Em bottles a letter and throws it into the sea Through luck, the letter reaches Kaya, a political activist imprisoned OVER A FRIKKIN VOLCANO in an unknown, Asian country The volcano makes it sound fantasticalbut this novel rings truer to contemporary, political activist fiction than the Weird The young girl and the young woman become friends thro [...]

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