Review: Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin

Chase Walker doesn't remember a whole lot about his own early childhood. He doesn't even know his own name or remember his parents. But when a young boy turns up alongside the railroad tracks in his small South Carolina town, he must help discover the boy's identity. It's kind of a story of how sometimes what you're looking for is right under your nose to begin with.

I'm a Charles Martin fan-- he is my favorite author of Christian fiction (Catherine Marshall still remains my favorite). His characters are engaging and unforgettable. His stories are full of the warmth of the south. Good stuff.

While I still prefer When Crickets Cry over anything else by Charles Martin that I've read, Chasing Fireflies was a great story. I liked the story of the main character wrestling with the holes in his own past juxtaposed with the story of the young boy, whom he calls Sketch.

One of the reasons I think I liked When Crickets Cry better was that it showed the events of the past, then showed the story unfold at present. Chasing Fireflies had a lot of history that unraveled in the story, but more in a narrative experience, with the main character relating the story to the reader, rather than the reader experiencing it as a flashback or other kind of scene.

It was still a great story, and I enjoyed reading it.