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Solace of the Road: Summary and book reviews of Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd, plus links to an excerpt from Solace of the Road and a biography of Siobhan Dowd.
Solace of the Road
by
Siobhan Dowd
Hardcover: Oct 2009,
272 pages.
Memories of Mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blonde locks she feels transformed. She's not Holly any more, she's Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the super-sharp talk. She's older, more confident - the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head on.
So begins a bittersweet, and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self, and unlocking the secrets of her past.
Solace of the Road is a wonderful novel from one of the UK's most talented new writers for teenagers. Holly's story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.
Book Reviews
BookBrowse - Judy Krueger
For a teen reader, this is the perfect road trip novel. What teen has not contemplated running away to live life on her own terms? ...Amid the gritty reality of modern life, child abuse, drug habits and lockdown as a disciplinary tool, Solace rises into a dream state where the magic charms of her wig and her Mam lead her ever closer to her goal. Full Review (members only, 758 words).
Publishers Weekly
Readers will root for her to find her balance and arrive safely at the right destination. Ages 14–up.
Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. Holly's insights and observations are completely plausible, as is her voyage of discovery, described in lovely, pitch-perfect language. A last gift from Dowd. Ages 12+
School Library Journal
Starred Review. Readers will keenly feel Holly's hurt, rage, confusion, sorrow, humor, and hunger for a sense of home, a sense of peace.
The Guardian (UK)
Tenderly unrolled at a jaunty pace, Solace's journey is full of apparent risks, but she is resourceful and resilient and the travelling helps her to let go of some of the anger of her past and give a more positive sense of the future.
The Independent (UK)
Creating the characters Holly meets in just a few words, quickly conjuring up the urban scenery, expertly flitting between past and present, Siobhan Dowd meets every challenge with the authority of a born writer taken from us too soon.
The Times (UK)
This page-turner invests mundane experience and everyday language with the resonance of poetry ..... This, and the thought that there was no more of Dowd's work to read, brought a lump to the throat. Ages 12+.
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Solace of the Road
(members only, 758 words).
Publishers Weekly
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