Like Water on Stone

Like Water on Stone follows three children lost in the chaos of the Armenian Genocide. It begins in the simple lives of the Donabedian family. Shahen dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin, never wants to leave her safe home in Armenia. After tragedy hits their village, Shahen, Sosi, and their little sister Miriam flee for the mountains. An eagle named Ardziv follows them throughout their journey into the vast unknown.

When I first picked this novel, absolutely nothing prepared me for what I was about to read. First, the entire novel is written in verse. I strongly dislike novels in verse in general, but I thought there were many powerful parts of Like Water on Stone that were good. There were other times I felt that the verse fell flat. Personally, I thought that all that verse was overkill. I understood that why the little five-year-old and the eagle had perspectives in verse, but I did not understand why the older characters who had more complex thoughts were written in verse. I could have liked to see more variation between the writing styles used among the characters. Overall, I enjoyed this book and thought that it was powerful.