Fiscal Pear and Shimmer in the Call of the River Whale by Olivia Brooks-Scrivanich

Summary: A walking and talking pear, Fiscal Pear, and friend, Shimmer, travel together while getting into a big, dark adventure.

My Thoughts: I think the consensus for this book will be that people liked it. Sadly I’ll be one of the few that didn’t.

First let me tell you what was good about the book. The author has written a very imaginative story and came up with things I wouldn’t have thought of. Some of the character description stays with you. I still can’t think of the bad guy, Butt Rott Root, without picturing something very evil, slimy and smelly. The author’s also not afraid to go to dark places and come back from them. All of these are good things.

What I didn’t like was … maybe I am not as open to different imaginations as I think … because I found the whole thing a little too weird. One thing that didn’t help was the book cover, picturing the characters from the book, kind of made the story creepy for me.

There were also sections that repeated the story. For example, when Fiscal Pear would meet another character, he’d retell what had happened to him so far. But the thing was, you had already read what happened to him. Perhaps children, who are the ones this book is supposed to be written for, will enjoy that more. I just don’t think it needed to be repeated. Instead, you could have a sentence like most books do, where you say, “Fiscal Pear told Chance everything that happen to Skimmer and him. Chance listened attentively as the pear told the horrible tale.” Then the story would move on from there.

One other thing that bothered me was most of the book was supposed to be in flashbacks, and I assume that’s why it was in italics. But as we neared the end, I don’t think we were in a flashback anymore, but everything was still in italics. I was a little confused about whether Fiscal was still telling his story to the Owl, as he had been in the beginning.

So I am sorry to say I didn’t like this book. But please no one go by me, because I do have such different tastes than most people. There’s only one review I could find about this book and it is at Amazon. That person gave it four stars. If you have reviewed this story, let me know I will link you. 2 Stars

About the author: This is the first book for Olivia Brooks-Scrivanich. This first book is also the start of a series. You can also go to FiscalPear.net to see more about the book. At a very young age she learned to play 4 different instruments. She is married and they have dog named Chance. They both reside in the state of Washington. I appreciate that I was given a review copy from the author and I hope she takes nothing personal with my review.

If you would like to win a free copy of this book come back on Friday for Refer A Book Friday!