The Lonely Teddy Bear

The lonely teddy bear – Chelsea Radojcic

When I first saw the cover of this book it intrigued me, it shows a journal, a teapot, a suitcase and a hat standing on a railway track and that along with the title influenced me to request a copy to read and review with Netgalley. It only took me three hours to read and I can honestly say this is one of my favourite books of the year so far. In a word this book was amazing and a lot darker than it seems at first glance. I loved it. Jink’s is a special teddy bear who loves to spend his time drinking tea and looking out the window of his beautiful house. However, after years of waiting for his friend Janie to return he becomes tired of reliving his bittersweet and painful memories that are “like honey and glass.” He realises that his beautiful home is like a prison and after realising this he decides to set out in search of adventure.
One point I would make to anyone thinking of reading this is that it is definitely not for young children despite its title and description on the blurb, it is definitely one for teenagers or adults. I love the opening sentence of this book, “Once there lived a rather special Teddy Bear.” In fact the whole of the first chapter was enchanting and reminiscent of the style of Enid Blyton. I loved the fact that the author said of Jinks that of his many skills nothing was more impressive than his manners. There are some brilliant characters in this book including a fisherman Jinks meets on his travels named Sam. They spend many nights discussing their painful pasts and slowly developing a friendship. Sam tells Jinks about his wife who died 9 years ago and Jinks talks about the war and what a scary time it was for everyone and how day Janie’s parents picked her up from school and never returned. “Jinks felt something he had not felt in such a long time; or rather he didn’t feel something: loneliness.”
The author uses lovely phrasing to describe everything from the scenery to the characters. My favourite was a description of a character called Amber as having a demeanour that was “”strong and lone-wolf-like.” Amber discusses the death of her parents and once again Jinks talks about Janie. Jinks and Amber help each other with their loss but once again Jinks becomes restless and moves on. I found the words to Amber’s song beautiful. Eventually after moving place time and time again Jinks comes up with a plan to try to find Janie. I cannot stress enough how much I love this book in particular the way it deals with grief and loss throughout and also the twists and turns in plot throughout. My friends and family will certainly be having this book recommended to them.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review!

The Lonely Teddy Bear is a short but very well written story about a teddy bear named Jink who sets out on a search for happiness after being left behind by his human, Janie. I was immediately attracted to this title by both it's cover as well as the...well...title. Personally, I have a teddy bear that I love very much, and the thought of a teddy bear being lonely made me so sad! But I was sold once I saw that it was under the thriller/mystery genre. I had my suspicions about why it was a thriller/mystery, but found myself going, "Nah, there's no twist," several times throughout the book.

I promise you, there is most definitely a twist.

I won't go into any detail about it, but it was a twist that took me by surprise! This whole book is a wonderful story about a teddy bear that goes looking to fill the void left by his human friend, Janie. He brings along his suitcase, hat, jacket, and journal, and makes his way outside of his comfort zone to fill the pages of his journal. Along the way, he meets an interesting group of people and makes a small impact on each of their lives in his own way. Jink tells of how he spends time fishing with Sam, riding along the road with Amber, working as a barista with Jillian, and eating nice home cooked meals on a farm with Mr. and Mrs. Larson. He is a wonderful narrator, and I loved reading from his perspective.

Throughout the book, I found myself wondering if Jink was really a teddy bear or something more. Because, let's be real, a walking, talking, teddy bear isn't something you see every day. But Jink is so much more than just a teddy bear, which you find out as you progress through the story. He was interesting to follow, and as I read the story, I found myself noticing small quirks about him that made me question if he was really as good and polite as I was initially told at the start of the story. The progression of Jink from start to finish is fun to read, and once you get to the twist, you can put the pieces together of the things that happened throughout the story and really understand what has happened in the past 45-ish pages (I read the e-book version which was 49 pages, just for reference!).

I really enjoyed the writing of Chelsea Radojcic. It was descriptive without going overboard, and was just enough to get you immersed in the story. All of the places that Jink visited were so well written that I could easily picture them in my head, which is always a plus. She really allowed me to connect to Jink and made me instantly attached to the polite teddy bear from the very first page. Each character that Jink encountered was written perfectly, with each having a distinctive personality that was so different from any of the others that Jink met along his journey. Of course, Jink was my favorite character, but I liked that I was able to get a feel for the more minor characters as well!

While this book was short, it was a really fun read. I flew through it in just a few short hours and by the time I was over, I was really satisfied with the ending. From start to finish, The Lonely Teddy Bear had me absolutely hooked! If you're looking for a quick thriller to read, pick up The Lonely Teddy Bear and prepare yourself for an ending that you won't see coming!

This remarkable book written by Chelsea Radojcic, The Lonely cover92860-medium Teddy Bear is about reality, our perception of reality and the real self.

What kind of reality and world do we choose for ourselves?

Who is a stranger? Or better: who can be a stranger we meet along our way and we treat as our brother?

Our perception of the world and the beauty of it, if we are not good people would change when we look at a pot of flowers, a wonderful sunset, or at the poeticity of the world? A strong lack of humanity brings with it horror or in the scheme of things a soul can accept the big discrepancies and divisions existing into ourselves, accepting also the beauty, relaxing part of the living as a biggest scheme?
Maybe, sometimes for compensating the horror of the reality?

Can a man with a heart like a stone feels the beauty of the world?

It's an impressive, captivating story from the beginning The Lonely Teddy Bear.

I started to read it yesterday and in a few hours I completed it.

The first part, bucolic. This man Jink is missing a lot Janie, a girl, it will be explained later, with which he lived when she was still a kid and that she should be 18 years old now. Still unclear why he lived with this kid. At first, with terror, you think this world and the other, of course.

It's 8 years that he doesn't see her and he is missing her a lot.

He starts a trip, discovering various people, Sam, a past as a veteran and his choice of living in a tent. Jink will join him for a long while. Then Amber a girl with a sad past of abuses, and a dad often too drunk for being present and good for all of them.

Then a nice couple who will feed and give hospitality to Jink for months and months before he will leave them and the memories of their beloved son Jimmy dead in war, behind.

His works at a bar and he knows the young waiter...

You will love all the characters Jink will meet along the way because they're all beautiful souls.

I had recently read a book about "famous" couples like the ones portrayed in this book. The one of Jink and later Janie. Strong situations.

The life of Jink appears perfect although limited by windows. He doesn't want to look at the world through windows but take action. That's why he leaves his idyllic Yellow House for searching for Janie.

The style is shockingly interesting, because when you think you are reading a certain kind of book, later you will discover that you have in your hands something completely different.

But...This one is a book that for creativity and geniality is able to make the difference and I warmly suggest it to all of you.

The cover is beautiful, and it attracted me from the first time and it was why I picked up this book at first. I was right because you can't put it down for any reason but you must discover what will happen next.

It is a reading for adults only. I strongly exclude or suggest it for teenagers.

I thank Netgalley for this book.