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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Starts bittersweet and unapologetically British, but the ending was too saccharine for my taste. I expect Helen would be portrayed by Maggie Smith in the movie adaptation for which this book is perfectly set-up. The surprising vegetarian awakening was a little clumsy but I was truly thrown for a loop when her former profession comes into play. This could have been a far more interesting story if it hadn't committed so fervently to the feel-good ending. Don't get me wrong, I love a happy ending as much as the next person, but I felt it utterly undermined the point of this story.
This book certainly serves a purpose and provides deep insights, and in my opinion, into aging and loneliness. These themes and the feelings that many within that population feel are strong and profound. However outside of the well established themes in the novel the overall plot fell incredibly flat for me. I’m unsure if it is intentional or not by the author, in order to emphasize the themes, but the book is super repetitive and rather boring. Simply going about the day to day life of Helen. She often recounts the same memories over and over. To me this felt like being in a long term care facility where your sitting with a loved one who is telling the same story to you for the 50th time and your just praying it’ll be over soon. That is much how I felt while reading this. However, again, this could have been intentional. Overall I gave the book 3 stars because I loved the description of age related thought and feelings that I felt like were starkly accurate. I also did like the descriptions of Sipsworth.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Well, aww.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated