Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen

Whistling in the Dark Reviews

• 
  Tina

  This is a Historical Fiction/Mystery/Thriller. This book takes place in 1959, and we follow a 10 years old little girl named Sally. Sally has lived a hard life which makes her sound older at times. In this book little girls are being killed, so Sally is scared. Her father has died and her mother is sick, so she is also trying to get over the fact she could not have any parents. This book is written very well.
• 
  Erin

  Nothing else hurts worse in the world as much as tears for the missing.
  
  Ignoring the multiple new books and ARCs that I have to get to, I just craved a re-read of this book. Sally O'Malley and her sister Margaret(Troo) O'Malley are two tough little girls living in a Milwaukee neighbourhood in 1959. Still reeling from the loss of their father, the girls are worried about their mother who lies in a hospital battling a staph infection. Their older sister, Nell is more interested in her boyfriend, their stepfather is an abusive drunk running around town and the neighborhood is in a state of terror after two young girls are found murdered and molested. Sally is convinced that she is the attacker's next victim and she sets out to get him before anyone else is hurt.
  
  Whistling in the Dark combats the humour and innocence of a time when neighborhood kids ruled the streets, but also were threatened by the unspeakable.
  
  Original Review:
  This was the first Lesley Kagen book I read only a few months after its May 2007 release. I loved the main character, Sally O'Malley ,who is our young narrator. Kagen often selects children or child-like narrators for her books. I enjoyed this book so much that as soon as I was finished- I read it again!!
• 
  JanB

  I had to check several times to make sure that Sally was indeed 10 yrs old and Troo, even younger. The author tried too hard to make the narrator sound like a 10 yr old at times yet at other times the thinking, language, and experiences were of a much older girl. No way was Troo believable as a 9 yr old. Matter of fact most of the story was simply implausible. Even though the book was under 300 pages it felt much longer. The story was so slow at times that I had to fight the urge to skim just to be done with it. The author tried to cram every “social issue” in one story: extramarital affairs, drug use, teen pregnancy, alcoholism, neglect, abuse, the mentally handicapped, and yes, even the obligatory gay priest. The ending was contrived. There are few books that can believably pull off a child narrator. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is of course the benchmark. This one falls far, far short. Don't waste your time.
• 
  Roxann

  This is a Reader's Choice book featured in the Salt Lake County Library System - that's why I picked it up. They are usually good reads. This one was a disappointment to me. It's the story about two sisters in 1959, aged 9 and 10, left pretty much to their own devices one summer because of their mom's hospitalization, a dysfunctional step-dad, and an older sister who is wrapped up in her boyfriend. I loved the character, Sally - the older of the two girls. I loved her thought processes and her language. I found the younger sister, Troo, unbelievable and contrived. It's the story of the dark shadows in a time we usually think of as innocent. Since I was a child in 1959 I found the dark secrets of the characters, the town, and even the children implausible and farfetched. I know that bad things happened to good people even then, I know that women were often devalued, I know that affairs, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and homosexuality were kept deeply hidden and private, glossed over, ignored. I don't believe, however, that there was as great a confluence of these events in any single life or family or community in 1959, as there was in the lives of these characters. Oh! Did I forget to mention a child molester/serial killer on the loose? It strained credulity for me and by the end of the book I didn't care anymore. I kept thinking, "Yeah, whatever." or, "That would be right: even the priest is gay. Yawn."
• 
  Lavada

  Fabulously written from the perspective of a 10 year old. Here's a couple of my favorite excerpts - don't worry, they won't ruin the book:
  
  To tell you the truth, I didn't get half of what went on up at that church. With all the Latin mumbo jumbo and the Stations of the Cross and the nuns who waltzed like ice skaters wherever they went but would smack you a good one for not singing along with a hymn. I didn't even get what my First Communion was supposed to be about, even thought people made a big deal about it and I got presents and my picture taken by Jim Madigan. I know it was the first time I tasted Jesus' body, which had been stuck into a little white cookie. And if you didn't let that cookie wafer melt in your mouth and you bit into it, Jesus would come squirting out and you would be in mortal sin trouble. But I still really didn't get why we had to do that. But that Virgin Mary statue that always smiled and made you feel loved no matter what...I got that.
  
  ...Some man at his funeral called our daddy, Donny O'Malley, lush. I didn't know what that meant so I looked it up the next day in that big dictionary they had over at the library. Lush is an adjective that means luxurious. That man was right. My daddy was lush. Stuffed with lushness. Like a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and chocolate frosting.
  
  
• 
  Nancy

  I loved this book and am currently reading it again in anticipation of the sequel, Good Graces, which will be out in September. I love the voices in all of Lesley Kagen's books and especially that of Sally O'Malley in Whistling in the Dark. Sally has qualities I have always admired - common sense and attention to detail! These are qualities I identify with. Even though I wasn't yet born in 1959 when the story takes place, and even though I am decades older now than Sally is in the story - there is still something in her voice that is so familiar it could be my own. This is proof that no matter how old we get, the voice we have inside ourselves is that of the children we once were. The O'Malley sisters have grown-up troubles to deal with. The adults in their lives cannot or will not be present for them, but Sally and Troo still manage to keep their innocence and enjoy the same summer activities as the other children in the neighborhood. This book will evoke your childhood memories, and as your own child voice echoes through your mind, remember to savor each and every page of this book. You will miss it when you're done.
• 
  Tina

  I'd give this a 3 1/2 stars if I could. The story of two sisters, aged 9 and 10 and their adventures in the summer of 1959. The book portrays some of the innocence and carefreeness of the 50's but there is a darkness to the story and a pretty good mystery. I enjoyed hearing the story through 10 year old Sally O'Malley's voice and look forward to the second book this Fall. I could easily see this as a movie!
  
• 
  Lori Elliott (catching up)

  Good, quick read about a summer full of changes for two young sisters... thought the author did a good job capturing how things look through the eyes of a 10 year old!!!
• 
  Katrina

  The best child narrator since Scout in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD!
• 
  Jonna

  Sally O'Mally has a big imagination, but she's not entirely wrong. Someone is murdering & molesting the little girls in her neighborhood, and someone is watching her. Are they the same person? Read the book, and find out.
  I enjoyed this book, and read it all in one sitting , but there were some things that confused me. Little details, like ages: how old are Sally, and her sisters? There are hints given, but never a definite age, and that bothered me. We never know for sure what city the novel is set in, and that bugged me, too.
  The good points outweighed these little annoyances, however, and I have to say that this was a quite a good read. The characters are full-formed and interesting, the storyline moves along at a quick pace, and there are a couple of twists that even I didn't see coming. And the ending is quite amusing, I must say!
  One of my favorite characters is Sampson, the gorilla at the zoo, who Sally & her sister Troo visit almost daily. Sally is sure that Sampson is singing along with her when she sings "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."
  Overall, this is a book worth reading. Funny, smart, and uplifting. With a big heart, a big imagination, and a great sense of timing, Whistling in the Dark is staying on my shelf!
• 
  Grace

  It was a little slow and rocky at first, but Whistling in the Dark was a great read! I finished it all in one night, I was so enthralled. I've read others like this, but it was a good mix of nostalgia, childhood innocence and dark reality. The thing I liked best about this was the protagonist, Sally, which is important when reading a first-person narration. Sally is endearing and full of funny wisecracks. There are a few flaws, but the good outweighs the bad, and this is a book that everyone can enjoy.
• 
  Myrna

  Enjoyed the location and era of this novel as well as the big mystery. I wish a younger sounding woman narrated the audiobook. At times it felt like a gossipy naggy woman was telling the story instead of a 10 year old girl.
• 
  Erica

  I wonder if I should have started with some of Kagen's newer works and then read my way backward? In retrospect, reading her first novel first may not have been my most clever move.
  
  The story, here, is what my pals and I call "Fine and Perfect" which means it was ok but I don't really want to talk about it.
  I'm still going to talk about it, though.
  
  Alright. So. The story. It's a fun, quick summer suspense featuring a ten-year-old girl in 1959 Milwaukee who believes she will be the next victim of a child rapist/murderer. No,that doesn't sound fun but, despite the child raping and murdering and the leaving of the bodies down by the park, it's pretty light-hearted. In addition, the girl - Sally O'Malley (yes, really) - and her just-a-bit-younger sister, Troo, are essentially abandoned for the summer while their mother is dying in the hospital and their stepfather is getting into bar brawls and staying at the waitress' house most nights. But don't worry, it's not as depressing as it sounds. There's an older sister who tries to pitch in when not doing what teenage girls do in the summer and a cop who shows a little too much interest in Sally and a zoo with a gorilla named Samson.
  
  Delightful characters are introduced (Ethel), the sense of community that I think many of us yearn for runs rampant through the pages, sparking nostalgia both real and imagined, and the mystery of who has been kidnapping, abusing, then murdering little girls is solved. That all makes for a pleasant read.
  
  The thing that marred my pleasant read, though, was Sally, the narrator and protagonist.
  I had a hard time following her tale because the narration is fashioned after the thoughts of a ten-year-old city girl in the swell '50's. The thing is, though, kids can be pretty astute when telling their stories. It may not sound like it from an adult perspective, but ten-year-olds often understand the concept of flow and consistency (in tone, not necessarily in story elements). There's just a lot of chaff involved because they don't understand, as well, the idea of being concise. Hell, I still don't get that. Normally, when things get muddled and murky during a child's rendition of her life, you just ask for clarification and get the kid to set things straight. In a book, the reader can't ask for clarification so a child narrator is a tricky thing; getting the voice of a ten-year-old to come across without tangling the story is hard. And, in this case, I don't think it was successful.
  Sally sounded like a child written from an adult's point-of-view, meaning "This is how grown-ups think children think"; she didn't feel authentic; it was if she had been pared down to the most basic child-like form and then dressed in clever kid-like thoughts that had adult undertones making her faux-precocious and simultaneously overly innocent and completely not genuine.
  Adding to that is her inconsistent voice. Her sentimentality for the Sky King starts out over-the-top, then goes away altogether, then pops back up at the end. (There are numerous, unnecessary asides in parentheses but they bunch up together in some chapters and then go missing for many chapters only to suddenly appear again). Her inner monologue isn't even consistent. On and off throughout the beginning chapters, she's all lazy speech, all the time - she's gonna, he coulda, she's runnin', we woulda, they're laughin' - but then that stops and her speech begins to even out, flow better, reads more smoothly, and then suddenly she jerks back to the beginning chapters again. I kept getting thrown out of the story every time that happened.
  
  I ran into other problems - like Ethel. She turns out to be an awesome character but I'd just assumed she was another kid, albeit a little older than Sally and her sister, with whom they liked to hang. No, it turns out she's a full-on adult and she's black and she works as a caretaker for a little old lady. I found that out in chapter 20. I'd been picturing her as just some 14-year-old that did good deeds. It was jarring to have to re-imagine her halfway through the book when she becomes an important character.
  Switching from honorifics to first names and back was also very confusing. Mrs. Callahan was Mrs. Callahan and then Betty but then back to Mrs. Callahan all in the same paragraph, making me wonder who the hell Betty was and why she'd popped up when we were talking about Mrs. Callahan? It took me a few minutes to realize that this ten-year-old is calling Mrs. Callahan by her first name. Did ten-year-olds who were raised to be all proper and crap do that in 1959? Did they think of people as both Mr/Mrs as well as by their first names? I don't know if they did, or not, but switching back and forth like that certainly messed with the flow of the story.
  And the killer. At the end, he goes all psycho and weird and I have to admit I rolled my eyes through the entire scene.
  These were all problems for me.
  
  So to sum up: While I liked the idea of the overarching story, the little inconsistencies and my inability to believe in Sally O'Malley as a ten-year-old got in my way and I couldn't enjoy the story as much as I'd have liked.
• 
  Vickie

  When I first began reading
  Whistling In the Dark, I really didn't care for it. The two main characters, Sally - age 10, and Troo - age 9, just weren't believable characters. Their language and thinking were too sophisticated for this age group. The first half just dragged but, the stubbornness in me had me continuing to read. The story got better and there were finally age-appropriate characteristics for Sal and Troo. But the author was also busy getting every social issue addressed in the story line: adultery, alcoholism, child endangerment, etc! You name it, the issue was in this plot. Eventually the tide turned and the plot, not my stubbornness, kept me reading until the end, thus the three ***. It's hard to successfully write from a child's point of view let alone do it well; this book had some hits and misses with the narrator.
  
  Go Cards! L1C4!!
• 
  Kris - My Novelesque Life

  2.5 STARS
  
  "Sally O'Malley made a promise to her daddy before he died. She swore she'd look after her sister, Troo. Keep her safe. But like her Granny always said-actions speak louder than words. Now, during the summer of 1959, the girls' mother is hospitalized, their stepfather has abandoned them for a six pack, and their big sister, Nell, is too busy making out with her boyfriend to notice that Sally and Troo are on the Loose. And so is a murderer and molester.
  
  Highly imaginative Sally is pretty sure of two things. Who the killer is. And that she's next on his list. Now she has no choice but to protect herself and Troo as best she can, relying on her own courage and the kindness of her neighbors." (From Amazon)
  
  I know many people like this novel, but I found it hard to get through! If I had not bought it I would have chucked it aside.
• 
  Jen

  Set in the summer of 1959 and narrated by 10 year old Sally, this is the story of her growing up over the course of one summer. Her mother is in the hospital, her stepfather is lost in his booze, her older sister is occupied with other things, all of them leaving Sally and her sister Troo to roam the streets unattended. There has been a molestation and murder in their town and Sally is determined she knows who it is. A summer full of secrets, truths, maturing, nostalgia, neighborly kindness, and tragedy. This has all the makings of a great novel but fell a little short for me. It was well written but was missing that spark that would have taken it to the next level. It was good, not great, and left me slowly turning pages and hoping for the conclusion. For me, Whistling in the Dark was ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars.
• 
  Therese

  It felt like the author looked up every "written-by-spunky-child" cliche since To Kill a Mockingbird and slapped them into this book. No surprises, in plot or characterization. I've read this story, met these kids, in better literary form, many times.
  
  The voice, at it's best, was similar to "
  A Girl Named Zippy" a book which truly was funny and sweet because it was real and unassuming. Contrarily, I felt like the author, in this book, was giving space for me to warmly chuckle or go "awwww" after every precious thing the girls thought or did.
• 
  Marielle

  Synopsis: Sally O’Malley is a young little girl, with a strong heart and a young little sister who needs protecting, named Troo. But lately, in the summer of 1959, scary things too big for two little girls to be dealing with alone, with the father dead, mother in the hospital, a drunk step father and a big sister who’s too worried about her boyfriend. Their other young friends have been found dead, naked and raped and Sally believes that she’s next. She thinks she knows who did it, but she’s always been so imaginative.
  Classifications: Target audience is 14+, with some language and drug use in it. The primary purpose was very narrative, because it simply told a story just to entertain. The manner of expression was in novel form, in the 1900s, with a genre of realistic fiction and a little dystopia. The genre of style is tragedy.
  Criticism: This novel was very good literature. I enjoyed reading about the two young girls, Sally and Troo because they were so young, and so independent, which made it hard to believe, but the writer, Lesley Kagen, just made it so real. For example, I think that making things a little sadder, like the dead bodies of the little girls who know Sally and Troo being found in the yard or behind a dumpster, really enhanced the realness and believability for the writer. The writing style was well paced, I felt like she definitely slowed and quickened the perfect scenes for the reader to really understand the storyline and feel the emotions that she wanted us to feel. The character development was really good, even though I found out who the perpetrator is before it was given out, but that typically happens. I think it was one of the trickier of the books anyway, I didn’t find out the perpetrator until a little after I usually do, so I found that impressive. I really liked the storyline, overall. This is actually my second time reading this book.
  
• 
  Hilarie

  Sally O'Malley knows what's really going on. At least, she knows more than any of the adults in her life would believe possible. It is 1959, and Sally is missing her father, who recently died in a car accident which occurred in the company of Sally's uncle and her little sister Troo. Sally made some promises to her father before he died, and the most important is that she would look after her sister. Sally, who is delightfully earnest, has every intention of following through to the letter. In the meantime, someone is murdering and molesting little girls on Vliet street, the street where Sally is now living after her mother's hasty remarriage to her new stepfather, Hall. Sally thinks she knows who is up to no good, and all she is hoping for is to protect her sister and herself. This will be difficult, as Sally's mother is in the hospital, and the rumors are that she might never be coming out. Sally and Troo are on their own.
  
  I so enjoyed this book. Sally was a wonderful character. As with all children, Sally was aware of so many of the things going on in the community. She might have drawn the wrong conclusions, but only because of her lack of experience. The most difficult part about reading this book was that I longed to throw my arms around both Sally and Troo (they were so lovable), and bring them to my house to protect them from the things that threatened them. The book is less a mystery than a coming of age story, but the mystery aspect of the story was satisfying as well. There were also many poignant moments in this book that brought the hint of tears to my eyes, especially those related to parents and children. I don't want to give anything away as far as storyline, so let me just say, read this book! You won't be sorry.
• 
  Shelly Schulz

  Shelly's Thoughts: I liked this book. It's a quick little read, and overall decent. However, there's one super huge flaw for me. The fact that there is so much going on in 'small town USA in the 1950s." There's a murderer, a molester, a drunk stepfather, a mother in the hospital for most of the book, slapping kids around, a 'ghost', an African American woman who had escaped from the KKK in the south, a disabled elderly woman, a boy with polio who bullies others, a gay man, a gay priest, two mentally handicapped people (one adult, one a child), a child with medical issues, a child with a harelip, two people who survived Concentration Camps, and people not being completely forthcoming with who they are. Not to mention that the narrator is TEN years old, and her younger sister is NINE. The things that they do in this book, their manner of speaking, and how they take care of each other and the world around them is a much older way of being. It would make more sense if they were a few years older. Like 12/11.
  
  Also, for a 10 year old in the 1950s, Sally has an entirely too PC reaction to a lot of these things. It's almost unreal.
  
  Overall: It's a fun quick read. Just let go of expectations, and you might find yourself enjoying this.
• 
  THT Steph

  Whistling in the Dark is mainly appealing for the amazing first person narrative. The story is told by Sally, a girl who is often confused by her own imagination. Her character is naive, which I not only found endearing, but realistic for the time. Children were just not privy to the facts of life and slang as they are now... which brings me to her sister, Troo. Troo was not a believable character. Although the sisters spend a lot of time running the streets with a variety of characters, it is still not plausible that Troo would have the knowledge that she did.
  I found the struggles of Sally and her sister, Troo, to be heartbreaking at times, but it seemed less authentic with the overwhelming amount of things that were against not only these sisters, but the community, and was surprised that the pacing was slow at times with all that the author had to work with.
  Admittedly, I read the book in a day, so I have to wonder if this book wouldn't have been better served as a buddy read that was spread out over time. I think that the pacing may of been less noticeable, and therefore, less of an annoyance.
  As far as the ending goes, it was largely predictable, but was still quite beautiful.
• 
  Beth A.

  I read this book pretty quickly, a good part of it in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. Perhaps with a more relaxing book I would’ve become sleepy sooner.
  
  It’s fast paced, and draws you into the plot quickly. The main character is a young girl. Everything is from her perspective, and is charmingly done. You really only have the information Sal has, although sometimes you are able to connect tidbits and come to conclusions that are beyond her.
  
  Sal, her sister, and their friends are enchanting. They are on the verge of beginning to understand some grown-up things, especially with the help of their slightly older friend, Fast Susie. Sal actually seems more naive than her younger sister Troo.
  
  In addition to being about the funny way kids think sometimes, it’s about the two girls sticking together and protecting each other. It’s about the family falling apart, about mourning, and guilt, and forgiveness. Some of the subject matter is very serious and complex.
  
  I enjoyed how the little pieces connected at the end. Everything ties together for the happy ending.
  
  Note: R rated language: Troo enjoys words that start with the letter F.
  
• 
  Sarah

  I really enjoyed this book. Narrator and star, Sally O’Malley, transported me to the summer of 1959 in Milwaukee. I admire authors who can believably write in the voice of a child or a teen. Lesley Kagen does a wonderful job of making Sally, her family, her friends, her neighborhood and her suspicions of who is the “murdering molester” come alive. There are elements of the story that go over Sally’s head – such as when an adult is described as a lush she thinks it is because he is luscious. Staying true to the 10-year-old storytelling. logic, and perceptions is a part of this book’s charm.
  
  I listened to this book for book club. We had a good discussion on the options of single mothers/women in 1959, who we thought was the “murdering molester” and how neighbors and neighborhoods have changed for children. The most divisive issue was on the character Troo, Sally’s younger sister and how realistic she was. As the “bad kid” who tried everything to see what she could get away with, I was pro Troo.
  
  This is not a heavy hitting work of literature and that is okay. Sometimes you just need an enjoyable story that reminds you of what it was like to be a kid.
  
• 
  Pam

  Lesley Kagen was born in 1949. She said she wrote this book partly to spend time again in 1959. She wanted to revisit a time in her life when things were simpler, but not as simple as they appeared to a ten year old. (It's told through the eyes of a ten year old girl whose misinterpretations of sophisticated and suggestive conversation gets old pretty fast.) Growing up in the 50s, I also enjoyed the frequent references to cultural events and artifacts that took me back to my childhood. The exotic fragrance of Evening in Paris, red and white L&M cigarette packages, icy cold aluminum drinking glasses, car-hops on roller skates, record players and Nat King Cole singing "Mona Lisa"...brought back vivid memories. However, the narrative is uneven; sometimes the plot has a contrived feel. The characters aren't deeply developed. Two deaths have occurred as the story opens, and they are more thoughtfully handled than two more deaths that occur as a part of the unfolding plot. This book is a fast read, but not a particularly engaging read.
• 
  Eldonna Edwards

  I can't begin to describe how much I loved these little girls and the wonderful way the author tells their engaging story. If you grew up in the south you'll feel right at home with this novel. If you didn't grow up in the south, you'll find yourself feeling as if you did. Delightfully nostalgic with just enough complexity and suspense to keep you turning the pages. This luminous book will at times break your heart and at others, overflow it with yearning. I love character-driven southern fiction and literary coming-of-age with a strong narrative voice so this lovely novel rang all the bells for me. Grateful to Lesley Kagen for sharing this bittersweet story with the world. I've already queued two more of her books!
• 
  Miriam

  I was frustrated by this book. There was way too much "Mother/sister/other adult said X, but I don't understand the sex/violence/relationship stuff they are talking about." Now the main character was 10, but still this is not a plot device you should use every 5 pages. Any reader who knows real children finds it engrating and annoying.