Back to the Island!

And musings about design and writing

Ok, so I took a poll a few weeks ago on whether I should ignore a sticky note that warned me not to finish The Storm Keeper’s Island. The overwhelming consensus was that I should keep calm and carry on. So I did. And, as you see, I’m still alive to tell you about the experience.

First of all, if I didn’t say it before, I love the cover design. The way the smoke leads your eye from the title to the author to the characters and island, then around again to notice the subhead and blurbs. At a single glance, you have a strong sense of the book’s contents. It feels mysterious and fun with a hint of magic. 

The interior design is just as clever and fun. Somewhere near the middle of the book, it dawned on me that the candlestick at the beginning of each chapter was melting down. I love it when care is taken to enhance the reading experience in subtle ways such as this.

Candles play an outsized role in this story. The protagonist’s grandfather infuses wax with magic to form candles that have a peculiar ability to transport whoever lights their wicks back to a particular moment in time. His grandfather has somehow been designated the island’s Storm Keeper, but instead of fighting the gathering forces of evil by doing something dramatic like controlling the weather, he instead spends his time doing not much of anything aside from making these odd, magical candles. To be honest, I found the candles to be a bit confounding. An explanation as to the grandfather’s obsession with candles does not come until the end. Unfortunately, it also came with the realization that everything I’d read up to that point had merely been a setup for the next book. That’s never a great feeling. I may pick up the second novel if I find it for cheap in the wild because I am interested in the basic premise and the promise of some fun adventures ahead, but I do hope the ending is more satisfying.

As someone who is currently writing the middle novel in what he plans to be a trilogy, I’m realizing how tricky it is to write a story that is both satisfying and yet also leaves some plot threads dangling for the next book to tie up. What authors have you read who do this exceptionally well? Leave me some recommendations in the comments below!

Until next time, Always Be Creating!
—Bill