Heaven Eyes

This is a rather strange story of some young boys and girls at an orphanage and the adventure that three of them (Erin, Mouse and January) go on. It's a very interesting story but unfortunately raises questions that remain utterly unanswered.

Erin, Mouse and January in effect run away on a raft that January made, their initial idea being to go down the river to the sea. They end up stuck on a muddy area, and while there they find a young girl named Heaven, who has webbed fingers and toes, and her caretaker, Grandpa (who is more than a few bricks short of a full load).

Heaven, Erin and January are all trying to come to terms with their own pasts. Throughout this January has been wanting to leave and Erin wants to stay, having bonded closely with Heaven. Mouse and Grandpa have bonded, but everything gets thrown into disarray with the discovery of a body in the mud and the question of whether or not Grandpa murdered the person.

There's also some interesting supernatural things that take place in the novel.

The problem is that there are too many unanswered questions. The town and the orphanage seem to be surrounded by ruined buildings, large numbers of them, including shipyards, a printing office, etc. No explanation is given for why these are there. Was there some kind of terrible war? A massive economic depression? There are crates of food tins and chocolates in the buildings and they seem to be still edible which doesn't seem to fit with the near-ruin status of the buildings.

Heaven Eyes herself has her own mysteries. Her hands and toes are webbed, yet none of the kids seems to think this is particularly strange. Is she a mutant? A product of a nuclear war? Someone who isn't human? There's also the problem of the way she speaks. Granted, she grew up with "Grandpa" who was not the world's most intelligent or together person, yet the style of speech that she uses just doesn't seem right or believable. My first impression of her speech was that she actually resembled Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) somewhat.

These questions kept distracting me from enjoying the story for what it was and thus lowered my enjoyment of the novel quite a bit. As it stands it's an ok read, but not a must-read.

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