Walk Two Moons
By: Sharon Creech / Narrated By: Hope Davis
Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
Maybe not the most lyrical writing, but I liked how many threads came together
Right off the bat, lemme just say that I haaaated Hope Davis’s narration of A Wrinkle in Time. The pairing of fraught text with overly-fraught narration had my ears sore, had me dashing back to the laptop to return the heck outta that audiobook. So I was really leery about Walk Two Moons, but the Publisher’s Summary (I KNOW! I read the danged thing!) was so short and sweet that I must admit that I was quite beguiled.
How glad I was, how freakin’ RELIEVED I was that Davis does NOT shriek throughout this audiobook! Yes, the character Phoebe gets priggish and screechy at times, but Davis delivers those scenes with great, and much-appreciated, restraint so I didn’t wind up disliking her. Actually, everyone was voiced so jolly decently that I didn’t dislike anyone. So Huzzah for Ms. Davis!
The story follows a distressed Sal as she tries to make her way in a new environment. Her mother has gone on an extensive road trip, and her dad has moved the family (Just Dad and Sal) from the sweet country home she grew up in, all the way to a place where trees don’t sing.
But it takes this foundation to put Sal in a car with her grandparents, the three driving to Idaho for her mother’s birthday. Grandma especially wants to be entertained, so Sal begins telling them all the story of Phoebe and what befell Phoebe’s family when Phoebe’s mom took off. And thus begin parallel story threads that run through Walk Two Moons. Actually, there are several stories intertwining, and sometimes that makes me a tad twitchy as I’m a total boob who canNOT be counted on to juggle storylines.
Fear not! Sharon Creech develops each character well, and there are clear breaks between the jumping stories. I wound up caring very much about Sal’s grandparents as their story developed; I cared very much about Sal and her wounds, her interests (Especially as we come to see how tied to nature she is—yes, she hugs trees as they are friends who speak and sing to her). There are the tales of Phoebe’s family mystery; the tales of Sal’s desperate lack of mothering; the tales of Sal’s coming of age and responding to, what’s that? Is that a boy who is no longer icky?!?
I also liked how, as the main narrative develops, and through the parallel revelations that are made, a mystery is set up, and tiny hints are left for the listener. Tension is added as voices tell Sal to “Rush, rush, hurry, hurry!” as she and her grandparents travel to get to Idaho by the time the birthday of Sal’s mother.
And I definitely liked the ending, how aaaall those threads came together in a manner that left me with definite sympathy for Sal, and left me with definitive sympathy for the sometimes peevish Phoebe. Though I thought a bit of it felt contrived, and though I figured out what all that mystery came down to, Sal’s personality came through loud and clear with some decent writing.
Maybe the writing was only decent at times, maybe not as lyrical as I would’ve wished, but there are snippets regarding mom and blackberry kisses that are held close to the heart, regarding trees that sing, trees that whisper urgently, regarding mothers who make difficult choices and are willing to pay the price for lives worth living.
And oh yeah! Hope Davis didn’t make me scream in agony!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.