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34th out of 290 books
—
192 voters
Solace of the Road
by
Siobhan Dowd
Holly’s story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.
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...more
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...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
October 13th 2009
by David Fickling Books
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4.5 stars
“I was in the middle of a field in Wales with a storm growling in the sky and the cops after me. And all I had to help was a thieving glamour girl who only existed inside my own cracked head.”Having seen many fall into clichéd or melodramatic territory, I tend to be wary of books with plotlines that centre around a character taking a (literal) journey of self-discovery. The usual formula (teen has issues, teen hits road, teen has quirky interludes, teen has epiphany – all set to a ver...more
Cross-posted with my tumblr.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if all the YA heroes and heroines got together to discuss the times they saved the world?
Jace&Clary: "We stopped our dad from starting a demon apocalypse and then got together."
Edward&Bella: "We stopped a vampire war after we made a demon baby parasite."
Bethany&Xavier: "We tripled the visits to our local church!"
Everyone else: *blank stare* "Dude, that is so lame."
Seriously, our reality has been put in danger so man...more
Have you ever wondered what would happen if all the YA heroes and heroines got together to discuss the times they saved the world?
Jace&Clary: "We stopped our dad from starting a demon apocalypse and then got together."
Edward&Bella: "We stopped a vampire war after we made a demon baby parasite."
Bethany&Xavier: "We tripled the visits to our local church!"
Everyone else: *blank stare* "Dude, that is so lame."
Seriously, our reality has been put in danger so man...more
13 likes · like · see review
"Your name's made out of cloud, Holly."
Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Ms Dowd’s books sure do play havoc on my body clock. 3am. 3AM!
High Points.
Holly. S♥lace. Blonde wigs. Thule. Fiona. Vegan truckers. Grace. Trim. Rosabel. Slim-slam glamour girls. Mogits. The Titanic. “Walking out into a night sky, thumb out and fag in hand”. Ferries. Wales. Curry and chips. Araf. The kind of days that pull you out to play. Nameless boys on motorbikes. Miracles. Scenic routes. Baby Guiness. Strawberry birthday ca...more
Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Ms Dowd’s books sure do play havoc on my body clock. 3am. 3AM!
High Points.
Holly. S♥lace. Blonde wigs. Thule. Fiona. Vegan truckers. Grace. Trim. Rosabel. Slim-slam glamour girls. Mogits. The Titanic. “Walking out into a night sky, thumb out and fag in hand”. Ferries. Wales. Curry and chips. Araf. The kind of days that pull you out to play. Nameless boys on motorbikes. Miracles. Scenic routes. Baby Guiness. Strawberry birthday ca...more
17 likes · like · see review
Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
Life has not been exactly fair to Holly. She has grown up in a series of group and foster homes surrounded by social workers who say they care, but it certainly doesn't feel like they do.
As the story begins, Holly is headed toward a new home. A childless couple arranges for a few test visits and then decide they are willing to offer Holly a place in their lives. It should be the answer to Holly's dream, but her sights are set on fin...more
Life has not been exactly fair to Holly. She has grown up in a series of group and foster homes surrounded by social workers who say they care, but it certainly doesn't feel like they do.
As the story begins, Holly is headed toward a new home. A childless couple arranges for a few test visits and then decide they are willing to offer Holly a place in their lives. It should be the answer to Holly's dream, but her sights are set on fin...more
I didn't like Siobhan Dowd's Solace of the Road though I place it in high esteem.
Holly Hogan is clearly a girl broken. You don't realize just how broken until very near the end. She is not endearing or loveable; she is a trouble girl. She finds herself in an adoptive situation with caring people that she can not recognize as such.
When she puts on a wig, she become Solace, a girl of the road. Thus begins her adventures to return to her loving mother in Ireland. But the people she meet, the advent...more
Holly Hogan is clearly a girl broken. You don't realize just how broken until very near the end. She is not endearing or loveable; she is a trouble girl. She finds herself in an adoptive situation with caring people that she can not recognize as such.
When she puts on a wig, she become Solace, a girl of the road. Thus begins her adventures to return to her loving mother in Ireland. But the people she meet, the advent...more
3.5/5
And I was Solace. Solace of the road, walking into a night sky, thumb out and fag in hand…
There’s both a literal and figurative journey in this one for a girl who takes on a personality so different from her own. Holly, her story is sad but not completely tragic. Sad because she’s in foster care and does all these stupid things, but not completely tragic because not once does she get bogged down by what she doesn’t have. She’s always looking forward and thinking about how to get where she...more
And I was Solace. Solace of the road, walking into a night sky, thumb out and fag in hand…
There’s both a literal and figurative journey in this one for a girl who takes on a personality so different from her own. Holly, her story is sad but not completely tragic. Sad because she’s in foster care and does all these stupid things, but not completely tragic because not once does she get bogged down by what she doesn’t have. She’s always looking forward and thinking about how to get where she...more
2 likes · like · see review
This was the first book I read of Siobhan's, and as soon as I finished it all I could think was "I HAVE TO READ MORE!". But then I found out that she'd died of cancer, and had only written four books, and I was sad. She was a true writing talent, and 'Solace' is one of my all-time favourite books.
I love Holly Hogan. Even though self-described 'bad girls' in books get on my wick pretty quickly, you could see Holly's vulnerability and true kind-heartedness a mile away. All she wanted was to get ba...more
I love Holly Hogan. Even though self-described 'bad girls' in books get on my wick pretty quickly, you could see Holly's vulnerability and true kind-heartedness a mile away. All she wanted was to get ba...more
1 like · like · see review
Holly Hogan is nearly 15 years old and fed up with her life. After spending years in care she is now living with foster parents who she assumes don’t really care for her.
When she finds a blond wig she hides it and on the day before her 15th birthday she puts on the wig, applies some lipstick and runs away.
She’s transformed herself into Solace, a 17 year old beauty with slim-slam hips who knows what she wants and has the courage to go and get it. As Solace, Holly is determined to make her way fro...more
When she finds a blond wig she hides it and on the day before her 15th birthday she puts on the wig, applies some lipstick and runs away.
She’s transformed herself into Solace, a 17 year old beauty with slim-slam hips who knows what she wants and has the courage to go and get it. As Solace, Holly is determined to make her way fro...more
Holly Hogan is no typical sweet 15 year old shes the fierce solace. After spending a few weeks in a new foster home Holly decides to run to Ireland to her mother.Holly knows she wont be able to go to far looking like a 12 year old, so she puts in a blond wig making her 7 years older. She doesn't hesitate leaving her foster patents Fiona and Ray Aldridge whom she hated, they weren't her kind of people she was to wild for them. On the road Holly transforms into solace with her blond wig, she head...more
A blond wigged mysterious girl stows away in the back of a vehicle aboard a ferry headed to Ireland. When she realizes that she is locked in the overheated vehicle in the cargo bowls of the ship, her delirious panic pulls open drawers in her mind that she'd long kept locked. Irish author Siobhan Dowd follows up her well received young adult novel Bog Child, with this rogue road trip tale of loss and personal discovery. 14-yrld Holly Hogan remembers little enough of her childhood before bouncing...more
This posthumously published novel of a British author is a tale framed by the event of 15-year-old Holly being locked in the car of a couple she doesn't know who are making the crossing of the Irish Sea from Wales to Ireland. Why and how she is in that car and on that ferry and trying to make that journey is what the book is about. She wants to find her Irish mother, lost to her for almost ten years in the scuffle of a domestic dispute with a good-for-nothing boyfriend. The journey away from her...more
When fourteen-year-old Holly finds out that her caseworker, Miko, at the group home is leaving, she retreats even more into her fantasies about making her way back to Ireland from England and being reunited with her mum who fled an abusive boyfriend, leaving Holly behind.
She reluctantly agrees to try a foster placement since without her caseworker, she doesn’t feel strong ties to the group home, but she resists Fiona and Ray’s middle class life, and kindnesses, and ultimately runs away, plannin...more
She reluctantly agrees to try a foster placement since without her caseworker, she doesn’t feel strong ties to the group home, but she resists Fiona and Ray’s middle class life, and kindnesses, and ultimately runs away, plannin...more
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Fo rmy full review please visit my blog: Solace of the Road review @ From the Shadows I Review
I'm not sure what I want to say about Solace of the road so I'm going to apologise in advance just in case this comes out as a jumbled mess. I found it to be an intense book filled with strong emotions and the words just carried this book along beautifully. I loved the way the story was set out, it felt like you were in a room with Holly and she was telling you her story in an intimate fashion. I reall...more
I'm not sure what I want to say about Solace of the road so I'm going to apologise in advance just in case this comes out as a jumbled mess. I found it to be an intense book filled with strong emotions and the words just carried this book along beautifully. I loved the way the story was set out, it felt like you were in a room with Holly and she was telling you her story in an intimate fashion. I reall...more
Aug 09, 2010
Claire
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Claire by:
Lisa
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 righ...more
Solace of the Road is a bitter-sweet story about Holly Hogan, a fourteen year old girl who has been living in a residential care home. She has locked away much of her past in her mind and has a very childlike fantastist way of interpreting the world. Many of the things that Holly thinks she wants are false and an illusion. It is her dream of finding her mother and returning to Ireland that spurs her to adopt the role of Solace. Whereas Holly is a girl who is restrained by her life as a care-babe...more
Solace of the Road was a pleasant surprise. The story follows Holly, a foster care teen. She's fed up with her life and wants to flee London to Ireland where her mother supposedly resides. She finds a blonde wig and takes on a new identity, Solace. Solace is older, confident and more in control. On her journey she meets a variety of people and discovers things that she's been hiding from herself.
Holly is unlikeable at first. She's got a temper and talks without thinking. And yet, I came to reall...more
Holly is unlikeable at first. She's got a temper and talks without thinking. And yet, I came to reall...more
This slim book takes a while to get through due to its slow pacing and lack of action.
Holly/Solace's voice is melodious and well-written, and through all of her reflections, the reader gains a good sense of her character. However, I didn't feel her character matched up well with the plot. She's a very tough-exterior, soft-interior kind of girl, and I felt like she seemed more the type of person who would have settled resentfully into her foster home, maybe gotten into some light trouble, and the...more
Holly/Solace's voice is melodious and well-written, and through all of her reflections, the reader gains a good sense of her character. However, I didn't feel her character matched up well with the plot. She's a very tough-exterior, soft-interior kind of girl, and I felt like she seemed more the type of person who would have settled resentfully into her foster home, maybe gotten into some light trouble, and the...more
Siobhan Dowd is one of my new favorite authors ("London Eye Mystery" and "Bog Child"). Sadly, her death from breast cancer limits what is available to read by her. I still need to read "A Swift Pure Cry."
"Solace of the Road" is a dark, sad, complex book for patient readers. As with her other books, patience yields great rewards! In "Solace of the Road," 14 year old Holly Hogan is a part of the foster care system. At the beginning of the book, she is in a group home and has been offered a placem...more
"Solace of the Road" is a dark, sad, complex book for patient readers. As with her other books, patience yields great rewards! In "Solace of the Road," 14 year old Holly Hogan is a part of the foster care system. At the beginning of the book, she is in a group home and has been offered a placem...more
Jun 28, 2012
Catie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Catie by:
Cassi aka Snow White Haggard
Shelves:
read-in-2012,
ya
3 1/2 stars
This book is beautifully written, emotionally honest, and kept me riveted through many hot, humid, should-have-been-unbearable walks. I loved so many things about it and I would recommend it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I think this is just one of those cases of “it’s not you, it’s me.”
This is a very quiet, understated story that is nonetheless powerful. Holly is a “care-babe” – raised in the foster care system in England ever since she and her mam got separated when she was very yo...more
This book is beautifully written, emotionally honest, and kept me riveted through many hot, humid, should-have-been-unbearable walks. I loved so many things about it and I would recommend it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I think this is just one of those cases of “it’s not you, it’s me.”
This is a very quiet, understated story that is nonetheless powerful. Holly is a “care-babe” – raised in the foster care system in England ever since she and her mam got separated when she was very yo...more
19 likes · like · see review
Solace of the Road is not a plot heavy book. It's a character driven story where the reader uncovers the history of 14-year-old Holly Hogan. It starts when Holly receives a foster placement after living most of her life in a care home. She doesn't really want a new home or new parents, and she constantly complains about her foster parents Fiona and Ray. All she wants is to go back home to Ireland and the mother she left behind.
During an argument between Fiona and Ray, something snaps in Holly. A...more
During an argument between Fiona and Ray, something snaps in Holly. A...more
5 likes · like · see review
I think that Dowd had an amazing gift in voice and I would have loved to see how she developed the rest of her talents. She did a better job of building characters in this book than she did in Bog Child; Holly was such a nuanced girl - tough but with such innocence, too. Maybe that is a little cliched, but I think its accurate for a lot of kids who have grown up in less ideal circumstances.
One thing that was weird about this book, though, was that sort of spent half of the book waiting for a sh...more
One thing that was weird about this book, though, was that sort of spent half of the book waiting for a sh...more
Honestly, I’m not sure how to approach this review. I’m sad because, to my knowledge, this is Siobhan Dowd’s last book. Both Bog Child and Solace of the Road have been published posthumously, and I feel that although I still have a few books of hers to read that were published prior to these two, I am already internally mourning over the loss of such a great writer.
Dowd seems always able to find the perfect balance between telling the character’s story in an engaging way and bringing the reader...more
Dowd seems always able to find the perfect balance between telling the character’s story in an engaging way and bringing the reader...more
Holly is done with it. She is done with social workers and key workers and secure units, she is done with rules and reports, and she is done with her foster parents. She puts on her ash-blonde wig and instantly she's Solace, the mature girl with the slimslam hips and the ability to do anything she wants. She's ready and now she's heading on the road to Ireland, to find her Mom and reunite with her.
The only thing I could do after reading this book was to just set it down and smile in amazement, w...more
The only thing I could do after reading this book was to just set it down and smile in amazement, w...more
I have to confess I did rather loathe this book for roughly the first hundred pages, but this was mostly because I despised the protagonist. Aged 14-years-old, I found her extremely immature, as having recently turned 15 I found it hard to believe that that Holly Hogan was real. Worse still I found her bland, childish and quite frankly deluded.
However once her journey as a person really began, I started to see beyond the childish persona that is created by the first-person narration; by the end,...more
However once her journey as a person really began, I started to see beyond the childish persona that is created by the first-person narration; by the end,...more
Now, when I was researching possible books for my travel month (I say month, but I realise this month is over-running somewhat. Let's pretend no one else has noticed), I soon cottoned onto the fact that finding a comprehensive list of YA travel fiction was going to be a pretty tough task. But I do not give up easily, oh no. I managed to track down a list of road trip-themed YA on Goodreads (close enough), but was slightly disappointed to find most of these were set in the good old US of A. Not t...more
7 likes · like · see review
Siobhan Dowd - she is one of those authors whose works should be required reading for every middle school and junior high teacher and every parent of a ten year-old. 'Solace of the Road' should be required reading for every girl about to go into high school. It's lessons of love, loss, wishful thinking and appreciation for what family you have are poignantly told.
Solace is the girl most girls have wanted to be, at least once in their young (or not-so-young) lives. A wicked charmer with a devil-...more
Solace is the girl most girls have wanted to be, at least once in their young (or not-so-young) lives. A wicked charmer with a devil-...more
Holly Hogan is 14 year old who has been living in residential care home and now lives in a foster home. She has pretty much locked away what happened in the past, but she daydreams about going to Ireland to find her mother.
One day Holly finds her foster-mum's long blond wig. Putting it on she becomes Solace. A women of the world who makes her own choices, and not the restrained Holly who just does what she's told. Wearing the wig as Solace and with not very much money she hits the road to go to...more
One day Holly finds her foster-mum's long blond wig. Putting it on she becomes Solace. A women of the world who makes her own choices, and not the restrained Holly who just does what she's told. Wearing the wig as Solace and with not very much money she hits the road to go to...more
I really liked Solace of the road.I gave me that breathy feeling that you get when you just want things to go right d=so a character and whilst you spend most of the book willing this, this just holds the amount of attention you give this book. If read in the right way, at the right time, this is a heartening story. The only bad point was how easily the ending seemed to slide into meaningless melodrama with no reasoning. Alas, it soon found its shoes again and I was extremely pleased with the ho...more
Dowd's character Holly is tough but naive, realistic yet living in a self-created fantasy world, and a child but yet an adult before her time. As the story begins, Holly is desperately trying to escape a locked car traveling on a ferry, and is wearing a wig and going by the alias "Solace." Why Holly has chosen another identity, the reason for her destination, and even the story of the mysterious wig are all told in flashbacks, as she is on the run from her foster family and hitchhiking her way a...more
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Siobhan Dowd was born to Irish parents and brought up in London. She spent much of her youth visiting the family cottage in Aglish, County Waterford and later the family home in Wicklow Town.
She attended a Catholic grammar school in south London and then gained a degree in Classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. After a short stint in publishing, she joined the writer's organization PEN...more
More about Siobhan Dowd...
She attended a Catholic grammar school in south London and then gained a degree in Classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. After a short stint in publishing, she joined the writer's organization PEN...more
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i have only read one book by siobhan dowd (the irish bog child one) and it...more
Jan 08, 2012 09:25pm
I think I'm going to...more
Jan 08, 2012 09:30pm