Book review: Ruby Holler
Ruby Holler is a 2002 young adult book written by the award-winning American author, Sharon Creech. Rated a 5/5 by BookTrust, the novel’s plot revolves around the adventures of orphaned twins Florida and Dallas, who grow up in an abusive orphanage run by Mr and Mrs Trepid where particularly harsh treatment is delivered to them, having been in and out of different foster homes for most of their lives. Dallas, a quiet and reserved boy, drastically contrasts his twin sister Florida’s vivacious personality, which often gets the two of them into trouble for breaking rules. Fed up with their abusive carers, they decide to run away from the orphanage, just before being finally adopted into by an old couple whose own children have grown up and left.
The couple lives in a mysteriously beautiful place, deep in the countryside, which gives a name to the title of the book – Ruby Holler. Although constantly wary of being sent back to the orphanage, the twins begin to settle in life with the elderly couple, the Moreys.
They decide on going on separate trips and taking a twin with one of them, for which they want to use up their buried savings. Desperate to not be separated, the twins try to run away, but are found, and met, with kindness and understanding rather than anger.
As the Moreys begin to realise the extent of the abuse the Trepids portrayed, an exciting subplot revolves around the Trepids trying to access the Moreys savings for the trips with the help of their neighbour, Z, who, upon a virtuous change in mindset, decides not to help the crooked owners in devising a map of Ruby Holler in order to find the Moreys’ savings. No spoilers, but Z’s change of heart comes with the dawning realisation that he may be the twins’ biological father.
Her writing may be bold exaggerated strokes of fantasy, but Creech’s style has a simplistic and steady tone – the book manages to welcome eccentricity whilst also keep firmly away from overpowering subplots, out-of-place tones or facetious themes.
Creech keeps her tone neutral to age, to appeal to younger and older readers – there is a fine balance in understanding if you read the book at the age of the protagonists – thirteen – or if you read the book at an older age, around 19 to 21. The genre invitingly welcomes a wide variety of readers who can empathise and identify with some of the major issues discussed in the novel such as child abuse.
As a winner of a Carnegie medal award, Sharon Creech is an exceptionally brilliant storyteller of British children’s books, to which this novel is no exception. In Ruby Holler, as well as in many of her other books, she explores all the fundamental aspects of fantasy from different angles and perspectives; the novel showcases an amplified and exaggerated version of fantasy.
This novel is a perfect pick-me-up and escape from reality – it is thrilling and appealing to a wide range of age, and I’m sure you’ll find it just as exhilarating as I did.
Image by © Reuben, Picture Editor