Plucked by Vera West

Novels written by Indie Authors are some of my favorites because these writers take risks with their books, trying out unique narration styles, formatting presentations, and topics that one usually doesn't find in traditionally published works.  Trad houses thrive on what sells.  They're a bit more conservative, giving readers what they have already demonstrated they enjoy. Indie Authors thrive on pushing limits, ripping open envelopes, and playing with new approaches.  Indies give readers the opportunity to fall in love with something they might never have indulged by taking the "safer" reading path.

I discovered Indie Author, Vera West, at the Muskegon Art Fair this summer.  It was my first encounter with her, and we had a lively discussion about books, craft, and story diversity.  She's done something wonderful with her novel, Plucked, and it's worth sharing.

Vera's distinct viewpoint on writing a coming of age tale is to present the entire story in verse... like a long, free-form poem.  You might compare her book to spoken word performances heard at a poetry slam, but with a slower, more thoughtful pace.  The concept of writing a novel this way was intriguing to me.  Sure, there are epic poems out there... really old ones, like Dante's The Divine Comedy, Homer's The Odyssey, and Virgil's The Aeneid... that use this technique.  Still, this is my first time encountering the style in a contemporary story.  Am I living under a rock?  Quite possibly.  A quick Google search brought me more contemporary works written this way.  I need to expand my TBR.

Nevertheless, I was impressed with Vera's use of this uncommon formatting option in her novel, Plucked.  Her use of character perspective and her very precise vocabulary choices, not only in dialogue - which helped to understand each moment of the story on an intimate level - but also in narration - was excellent and fit well with the Young Adult genre.  I was extremely impressed with her very conscious choices in where to break lines, stanzas, and chapters.  Her breaks were deliberate, and these decisions made the emotion of the story stronger.  When a reader is forced into a hard stop at the end of a line, the specific meaning of the line, not to mention the individual words, have more contextual impact because they aren't run so closely together to form a scene.  This book entices contemplative thought because of the nature of pausing more often as you read.  Each line of this story came to me as a separate moment, and I felt I did a deeper dive into the story because of this required slower pace.   

At first, I was concerned that this format would make the book feel stilted, but I found it to be a very comfortable read.  The more thoughtful timing didn't force me to lose interest.  In fact the opposite was true.  Because I was more thoughtful as I took in the words from the page, I felt my interest in these characters and their story was heightened.  Yes, I read the book in segments, but I never felt disconnected from the tale when I picked it back up.  I didn't need to re-read the last few chapters to remember where I was.  The story was vivid and held my imagination extremely well.  Vera's characters were people I cared about and rooted for, and the emotion of the story was exceptionally relatable.  I felt a little voyeuristic at times because there were moments I felt like I was reading a teenager's journal.  I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.  I think having the opportunity to eavesdrop on the internal thoughts and dreams of these characters made the story better.  It made the story more transparent, hiding next to nothing.  

If you would like to indulge in a different sort of novel reading experience, I highly recommend Plucked.  It's a refreshing read that will pleasantly stick with you for some time.

---