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Title: Seventeen Against the Dealer (The Tillerman Series #7)
ISBN: 0689851332
Author:
Cynthia Voigt
Publicate Date: 2002-08-01
Publish: 2002-08-01
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $1.97
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: My least favorite...
This was my least favorite of the books in the Tillerman saga. I began to wonder why Jeff put up with Dicey all these years. She come off as very unlikeable (IMHO). It was nice to see the family as they got older, and it would be GREAT if Cynthia Voigt would write another one...what about Uncle John (alluded to in Homecoming)?
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2: Are the Tillermans losing their allure?
Somehow, "Seventeen" just doesn't seem to measure up to the rest of the books in the series. Oh, sure, it's great to find out what happens to Dicey and the gang as they grow up - however, somehow this part of the Tillerman saga simply fails to compel as its predecessors did.
I think part of the reason for this may be the large time jump from the last book - Voigt would fill us in on what had happened since "Sons from Afar" and "Dicey's Song", but there was still this nagging feeling that there was this gaping...gap...between the time periods of the books, and that gap is never filled in a satisfactory manner. I can't help but feel that things that Voigt probably would have expanded upon and made an interesting read out of, she simply skimmed through in "Seventeen" - such as Mina and Dexter's relationship, Maybeth and Phil (or whatever the name of Jeff's friend was), et cetera.
Of course, we have Dicey. But somehow, Dicey isn't nearly as endearing a heroine as she used to be - she's simply focused on keeping together her new boat-building business and neglects everything else in her life. True, much of the book's focus IS on this particular problem, but too much of the writing is focused on the shop itself and Dicey's business dealings. At least, that's how I remember it, which is a bad thing because it shows that if other things DID go on on a regular basis, they simply weren't interesting enough to recall. The complex family and friend interactions and relationships that enriched the previous books simply aren't in this one as much, with Dicey spending much of her time with the unfascinating and shady character of - Cisco, I believe his name was, though I might be wrong. I don't remember. See what I mean?
Her relationship with Jeff, as depicted in the book, was also quite a letdown. Jeff was barely even IN the book at all, so it was quite difficult to get that sense of powerful love between them, though of course it was there to an extent (mostly around the very beginning and ends of the book...which, come to think of it, are the only places Jeff really shows up in anyway). Wilhemina Smiths' love for Tamer Shipp in "Come a Stranger" was much more convincing and proved that Voigt is indeed capable of portraying powerful and moving feelings of love in her writing.
All in all, I agree with a couple of the other reviewers in that this book could have been made so much more of, bringing this otherwise wonderful series to a satisfying conclusion. It succeeds to some extent in the end, but it's really just too little, too late to make "Seventeen Against the Dealer" what it could have been to long-time fans of the Tillermans.
That isn't to say that the book is bad at all, though - it just might be a bit of a disappointment to longtime readers of the series. The depth and complexity of the protagonist's conflicts are there as strongly as ever, and the writing itself is very solid. It's just not as compelling as Voigt's other books. Of course, though, that shouldm't stop anyone from reading this book to find out what happens to the Tillermans (though I must warn you that several characters' futures remain unresolved, such as Maybeth and, more disappoiningly and keenly, Mina Smiths).
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3: A fantastic conclusion to the Tillerman saga...
At 21, Dicey Tillerman thinks she has enough knowledge to become a success. Dropping out of college a year earlier to begin a boatbuilding business, Dicey finds out the hard way that she doesn't have nearly enough life experience to take on such an enormous venture singlehandedly. But she keeps persisting, determined to make her lifelong dream a success...even if it means ignoring the needs of her family, and those of her boyfriend Jeff, whom she always thought would be there for her, no matter what. Dicey should have learned by now that no one ever has to stay anywhere...
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4: Ahh...okay.
By now, the wonderfully three-dimensional characters such as Dicey and Jeff are beginning to wilt. I recommend this book to fans of Dicey because it is good to find out what happens, but this isn't a book worth reading more than two or three times. (the earlier ones in the series NEVER get old) It's too depressing, and the happy ending doesn't really make up for the depressing parts.I've always been disappointed that Jeff Greene, who is possibly my favorite character in all of literary fiction, is never fleshed out beyond A Solitary Blue. The later Dicey books make him out to be some sort of young god. Kind of disappointing.
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5: Another Winner
Cynthia Voigt created a bestselling series with the Tillerman family that began with "Homecoming" and ended with this book "Seventeen against The Dealer." Voigt's talented use of action and realistic dialogue to move the story along keeps readers turning the pages and longing for more. I became a Dicey fan early on for her courage and her spunk. Dicey, the whole Tillerman clan make excellent role models for today's young.
I recommend this book to all the young and young at heart.Beverly J Scott Author of Righteous Revenge
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