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shanhautman's review against another edition
3.0
So interesting and innovative. I had a hard time following some of the later sections of the book.
vonderbash's review against another edition
2.0
This book is beautifully written, but the plot is hard to follow.
I received an ARC of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
I received an ARC of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
wissota's review against another edition
2.0
This came close to a DNF. The idea of this story sounds interesting, but there was a lot of jumping around between narratives. It could get a bit confusing. I felt like it needed just a bit more.
leilametzler's review against another edition
i could not keep up with the writing style and i just could not get into a rhythm of reading with this novel. i would pick it up and then not read for days because it was hard to follow along and hard to get hooked
yogilawyer's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
booklifter's review against another edition
dark
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
msmaldonado's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
mariasimson's review against another edition
5.0
I won this on a Goodreads giveaway. At first, by the look of this book, I thought I was going to "DNF" it but then I started reading and I was hooked. The beginning was kind of confusing as we were being introduced to the characters but as the chapters went on I was HOOKED. It was hard for me to put it down therefore I finished it in a day. The structure of this book was new to me with all the pictures but I grew to like it. I think everyone should read it because this book flowed so well that now I cannot stop thinking about it. I have a major book hangover. The only bad thing about this book is the lack of quotation marks but after a while, you get used to it.
readingintheether's review against another edition
2.0
i like it a lot at first, but the writing style is really difficult to get into and honestly distracts from the story a lot. near the end i was just ready for this reading experience to be over.
gilmoreguide's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes, when I finish a book, the review flies right out of my mind onto the page. Then there are the books that need to marinate, where putting words and thoughts together cohesively takes more time. This is where I find myself with Dear Miss Metropolitan, a debut novel written by Carolyn Ferrell. It’s a novel of immense creativity from an exciting new voice, but pulled from a dark story.
In the late 1990s two young teenagers, Fern and Gwin, are kidnapped in Queens, New York and held captive in a home for a decade. The first page of Dear Miss Metropolitan is a 2008 newspaper article detailing their rescue, along with a toddler belonging to another woman, Jesenia, who is no longer in the house. From there, we step back into the girls’ lives before they were taken. Both were girls on the periphery with mothers trying to provide, but with problems of their own and no fathers in sight—just boyfriends, some of whom were good while others were not. These are not girls free from trauma.
It’s very clear that Dear Miss Metropolitan is taken from the Castro kidnappings in Cleveland—multiple girls, a man known to his neighbors, years of imprisonment, and a similar outcome. From those bones Ferrell breathes life into her victims’ reality. A reality that includes being hung upside down, of being given magazine pictures of food in lieu of real food, and, due to boarded up windows, almost no sense of time passing. A level of torture and rape that leads them to disassociate and create their own labels for times and places that are too much to bear head on. They are trying to be Model Employees for the Boss Man. Once rescued, the habit sticks with Fern referring to the social worker who cares for them as Ms. Refuge and trying to separate Old Mind from New Mind.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2021/07/dear-miss-metropolitan/
In the late 1990s two young teenagers, Fern and Gwin, are kidnapped in Queens, New York and held captive in a home for a decade. The first page of Dear Miss Metropolitan is a 2008 newspaper article detailing their rescue, along with a toddler belonging to another woman, Jesenia, who is no longer in the house. From there, we step back into the girls’ lives before they were taken. Both were girls on the periphery with mothers trying to provide, but with problems of their own and no fathers in sight—just boyfriends, some of whom were good while others were not. These are not girls free from trauma.
It’s very clear that Dear Miss Metropolitan is taken from the Castro kidnappings in Cleveland—multiple girls, a man known to his neighbors, years of imprisonment, and a similar outcome. From those bones Ferrell breathes life into her victims’ reality. A reality that includes being hung upside down, of being given magazine pictures of food in lieu of real food, and, due to boarded up windows, almost no sense of time passing. A level of torture and rape that leads them to disassociate and create their own labels for times and places that are too much to bear head on. They are trying to be Model Employees for the Boss Man. Once rescued, the habit sticks with Fern referring to the social worker who cares for them as Ms. Refuge and trying to separate Old Mind from New Mind.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2021/07/dear-miss-metropolitan/