Water Balloons - coming of age story
Thirteen-year Marley doesn’t like the fact that her life is changing. Her parents have separated and her two best friends are branching out into the world without her. It’s the summer of all these changes and she is living with her father alone for the first time and things aren’t going as she had planned. Lazy afternoons, hanging out with Jane and Leah playing Monopoly waiting for next unexpected balloon blitz have now evolved into babysitting twin five-year olds while her best friends attend Curtain Call . Trying to resurrect the summer, Marley hopes her best balloon blitz plans will be sensation but when things do not turn out as planned, Marley confines in Jack. Jack is not exactly who she planned on hanging out with this summer but sometimes not everything goes as planned. It’s a coming of age story, a time to open your eyes a little wider to world around you and for Marley, she afraid of what she might see.
The story had good bones, it’s just that I didn’t feel emotional towards any of the characters. The characters came and went, their story was told and I listened but I just didn’t connect. The story was all too familiar as children mature and change, parents separate, life becomes too serious and people come into our lives mysteriously. Some people can handle change better than others, some people can read others better than some and some people can embrace everyone no matter who they are, it’s just the way some individuals are. I thought Jack was an interesting character. I don’t get to know him every well but what I did read about him, he’s a keeper. He’s open, he’s flexible and he’s human. Leah visits to Jack had me wondering about him but heck, he’s only human. It’s not like Marley was giving him any clues on her feeling towards him, we read how she felt him but she didn’t act upon them. I guess, you snooze, you just might lose Marley.
