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Title: The Kings and Queens of Roam

Author: Daniel Wallace

Narrator: Angela Brazil

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-07-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Helen and Rachel McCallister, who live in a town called Roam, are as different as sisters can be: Helen older, bitter, and conniving; Rachel beautiful, naïve - and blind. When their parents die an untimely death, Rachel has to rely on Helen for everything, but Helen embraces her role in all the wrong ways, convincing Rachel that the world is a dark and dangerous place she couldnt possibly survive on her own... or so Helen believes, until Rachel makes a surprising choice that turns both their worlds upside down.

In this new novel, Southern literary master Daniel Wallace returns to the tradition of tall tales and folklore made memorable in his bestselling Big Fish. The Kings and Queens of Roam is a wildly inventive, beautifully written, and big-hearted tale of family and the ties that bind.

Critic Reviews:

Wallaces eerie fairy tale for grown-ups is a melancholy yet enchanting pastiche of love, loss, redemption, and revenge. (Kirkus Reviews - starred review)

An imaginative, sentimental modern-day tall taleWallaces far-fetched, rollicking yarn, written in the vein of Manly Wade Wellman and Fred Chappell, consistently engages the reader. (Publishers Weekly)

Brimming with his brilliant visions and wise observations about life. Part fairy tale, part myth and legend, the city of Roam and her inhabitants - both living and dead - materialize in ways that are equal parts comedy and tragedy. (Jill McCorkle, author ofLife after Life)

Members Reviews:

Magical Realism at Its Best

This is the story of Helen, a bitter hideous girl and her blind, but beautiful sister Rachel. But it's also about the founding of Roam and all the other people that live in Roam. Each of their stories are interconnected with Helen and Rachel's. From the very beginning I was invested in every character. The writing is absolutely wonderful and the way he describes people and events is so new, so creative. The writing was so wonderful I began to hate Helen but even as I hated her, I also sympathized with her.

Roam is very much like any other small, dying town but it's also filled with magical realism. I love magical realism and the author is very talented at writing it.

I do wish the author had written more about Rachel. I felt like I never really knew her, especially because I "knew" Helen so well. I also wasn't a huge fan of the ending. But! Despite those flaws, I really enjoyed the novel.

A great concept that falls so short of brilliance

I was really expecting to like this book as I loved Big Fish. It falls completely flat, however. The story itself is pretty creative, but it is honestly a little hard to follow and is ultimately a revenge story - and not a very good one. I found most of the characters in the book to be rather despicable people, which meant that I didn't much care what happened to them. I think there is a lot of unrealized potential in this book, but at it is, it's just not that great.

If you liked Big Fish, you will like this

The characters in the book are fanciful as are the ordeals they must face but the book is written in such a graceful and tender way, you are drawn into the story to feel the joy and pain of the characters.