Isla’s Song: Love of a Child by Darren Mort
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I admit, I don’t read a lot of fiction with themes involving family, so Darren Mort’s Isla’s Song ended up throwing a lot of concepts at me that I do not usually deal with in the stories I read. That said, the story Mort has created is so interesting! I remember, the last time I did read a story dealing solely with family, it was a revenge story and only focused on the impact the narrative’s events had on one sole member of said family.
So, seeing something like this feels almost entirely new to me! Darren Mort has taken a simple action and woven it to create a complex narrative with many different interesting characters and intriguing plot lines!
Before I go any further, let’s look at what the story is about.
Summary
We open to the couple Oliver and Jessica Johnson raising their daughter Isla in Australia. On the outside, it seems like the ideal family, with Oliver and Isla bonding over a love for music and everything seeming ordinary. However, Oliver and Isla are both unaware that Jessica is secretly unhappy with her life in the family and will do whatever she can to change things.
When Oliver comes home one day to find both Isla and Jessica gone, their disappearance sets off a chain reaction of events that will alter the lives of the family forever.
Thoughts
This story subverted my expectations on several fronts. The way the narrative ended up playing out was much darker than I had anticipated. I think this can be chalked up to the first part of the first chapter, where things seem very wholesome and sweet. However, despite this sweet outward appearance, there ended up being a story that gripped me from start to finish, punctuated by moments of high tension that left me questioning whatever was coming next.
The way Darren Mort presents the main narrative pulled me in immediately, with a situation that sets up high stakes for several characters in the story! Relationships drive the narrative, so seeing how characters interact with one another is a big component of what makes this story so compelling! If I was hooked on something in this narrative, it involved how characters spoke to one another and conveyed information, along with the reactions that would arise from said interactions. I’ll discuss this idea further in the structure section.
In the meantime, let’s meet some of the characters in this story!
Characters
Isla Johnson
It is hard not to feel sympathy for Isla. The way she is treated throughout the story, from when she is a young child to a young adult, makes it easy to see why she reacts the way she does to her situation. I wanted to just take this young girl and wrap her up in my arms and tell her everything would be okay.
Seeing her react to her family situation as she gets older is especially heartrending, because it is very clear how she feels about her life. As she continued wanting to know more and more about her entire family, it was difficult for me not to feel very angry at the situation and wait anxiously to see what might happen next.
Oliver Johnson
I feel for Oliver as well, honestly. Seeing him and Isla so close when she is a child only adds to the impact of what happens to them, and I completely understand why Oliver reacts to the situation the way he does at first. His anger makes perfect sense within the context of the situation, and it was both amazing (and a little frightening) to see him act that way. I think this is because of his warm personality that we are introduced to in the story’s opening. To see that ripped away is both chilling and awe-inspiring! I felt hooked from that moment on!
The one thing I want to comment on with Oliver is that I wasn’t sure about the piano lessons he gives. I don’t know what the point of that aspect of the narrative was because nothing is done with it. When a story presents an idea, said idea needs to come full circle in some way because otherwise it won’t work.
Now that we’ve covered characters, let’s move on to structure.
Structure
The story’s structure ended up surprising me, in a good way. I love how the narrative is constructed! I particularly like that Darren Mort has music be a major backbone to this story. Seeing Isla learn to play music, and then tie that in with chapter titles named after famous songs, is an interesting decision that I haven’t seen before. It provides a framework for the story that is memorable in terms of how the narrative is presented to the reader.
In terms of plot, seeing how Oliver, Isla, and Jessica each try to cope with their respective situations is really enjoyable. As I said earlier, I want to discuss how information is conveyed between characters. It is intriguing to see how communication is handled in this narrative, given that interaction is an everyday thing we may not otherwise give much thought to. Seeing how the choices the characters make in communicating with each other and how they choose to share that information directly impacts the way the plot moves is gripping!
But there is more to this than just characters and structure. Writing is extremely important as well. Let’s move on to that section next.
Writing
The prose for this story really stuck out to me. I like that in the beginning there is a warm feeling to it that is associated with certain situations and characters, only for that to be ripped away when the reader is introduced to a new character. The mood changes almost instantaneously, showing that within this small family home, something is not right.
Speaking of writing, I want to briefly discuss dialogue and the important role it plays in this story. Just as mood and tone are important, it is also necessary to gauge how characters speak in response to certain situations. For example, at one point in the narrative, Oliver reacts coldly to a certain situation, showing both how it has affected him and hinting overall at how the scene will affect the story and his place within it.
All that said, I think I’ve discussed everything of significance here. Let’s wrap this up!
Conclusion
In the end, I really enjoyed this! Darren Mort has woven together a highly compelling narrative with interesting characters that I found myself intrigued by the entire way through. While I did catch some issues with the story, in the grand scheme of things they are minor and don’t detract from this story being fulfilling. For this reason, I will be giving it four stars.
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