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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
I get what other readers mean by unlikable MC - they are correct!! We aren't really supposed to like her but it's hard to enjoy this book when we have to be around her the whole time.
I missed where it said "domestic" in the blurb about a "domestic adventure" so I was expecting her to take off on some really wild adventures that never came. Yes, some wild things did still happen but 'domestic' here makes everything a bit slow.
The hardest thing for me was the MC. I think it would've been a funnier story if I could've related to her at least a little bit, and in some parts it felt like we were supposed to side with her even though she was almost (key-word 'almost') laughably unlikeable but there was no way she was ever going to win me over.
I missed where it said "domestic" in the blurb about a "domestic adventure" so I was expecting her to take off on some really wild adventures that never came. Yes, some wild things did still happen but 'domestic' here makes everything a bit slow.
The hardest thing for me was the MC. I think it would've been a funnier story if I could've related to her at least a little bit, and in some parts it felt like we were supposed to side with her even though she was almost (key-word 'almost') laughably unlikeable but there was no way she was ever going to win me over.
I liked this book, especially the back half. It was a little slow to get going and then a little anticlimactic. But there were some very funny moments. And a delightful reveal of how overboard (ha! punny!) the narrator goes in her devotion to Treasure Island.
Also, "Steer the boat, girlfriend!" is an excellent thing for a parrot to say.
Also, "Steer the boat, girlfriend!" is an excellent thing for a parrot to say.
+ What this book lacks in action it makes up for in tension. The narrator's psyche seems to be hanging on a thread, and I felt very anxious the entire time reading, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
+ "For years I have insisted that, despite her serviceable academic track record, Adrianna is not (warning: confidential family information) all that bright. Dogged, she is; organized, yes; pedantic, check; but possessed of a signal, sinuous, investigatory mind?
Ha! Ha! Ha!
And so it seemed incredible, in the highest sense of the word, that such an uninspired person should discover, in her imagination’s underbrush, the secret I had marooned on my desert island heart"
- I think I get what the book was trying to do but it just fell a little flat. When you're writing a character driven book, your characters have to have a little depth to them. The characters in this book weren't particularly likeable (not that there's anything wrong with that), but they were also cartoonish. Reading the narrator's story only made me feel anxious, and not particularly sympathetic, introspective, or satisfied.
- "Steven King"
+ "For years I have insisted that, despite her serviceable academic track record, Adrianna is not (warning: confidential family information) all that bright. Dogged, she is; organized, yes; pedantic, check; but possessed of a signal, sinuous, investigatory mind?
Ha! Ha! Ha!
And so it seemed incredible, in the highest sense of the word, that such an uninspired person should discover, in her imagination’s underbrush, the secret I had marooned on my desert island heart"
- I think I get what the book was trying to do but it just fell a little flat. When you're writing a character driven book, your characters have to have a little depth to them. The characters in this book weren't particularly likeable (not that there's anything wrong with that), but they were also cartoonish. Reading the narrator's story only made me feel anxious, and not particularly sympathetic, introspective, or satisfied.
- "Steven King"
Awesome book, loved to see the deterioration and psychopathic tendencies of the narrator develop throughout.
I usually don't enjoy humor based on uncomfortable situations but strangely I found this very funny. It also made me reflect on how self-centered I may be. Which is just further proof that I'm self-centered.
Like the anti-heroine of this grating satiric novel, I rediscovered the classic adventure Treasure Island as an adult, and found it hugely enjoyable. However, unlike the incredibly irritating, selfish, and possibly insane 25-year-old narrator, I did not convert it into a manifesto for personal growth. Working a strange, dead-end job in a pet rental store, and drifting in an amicable but mild relationship with her boyfriend, the unnamed narrator distills the classic adventure tale into four "Core Values" of Boldness, Resolution, Independence, and Horn-Blowing. Her natural self-absorption leverages these "values" in such a way that (semi-spoiler alert) in short order she has embezzled $1,000, lost her job, acquired a parrot she hates, lost her boyfriend, cut off her only friend, and is living back at home with her family.
I guess this is supposed to be a satire of the kind of self-empowerment memoir that seems to have sold quite well for the last several decades, but it never really worked for me. This may be because those kind of books seem to already satirize themselves, but I think the main problem is that the narrator is so single-mindedly selfish and obtuse that her antics are much more annoying and tiresome than they are funny. Which is not to say that there aren't a few funny scenes, because there are -- just not enough to justify the time spent reading. The book is 160 pages, which felt about 130-140 too many to me, I could imagine having enjoyed the same premise as a short story, but the same note is struck throughout, making it more tedious than I'm sure the author intended.
If the idea of riffing on Treasure Island appeals to you, check out Justin Scott's recasting of it as a World War II adventure with Nazi gold, or even better, one of the several novels written with Long John Silver as the protagonist, the best of which is Bjorn Larsson's Long John Silver.
I guess this is supposed to be a satire of the kind of self-empowerment memoir that seems to have sold quite well for the last several decades, but it never really worked for me. This may be because those kind of books seem to already satirize themselves, but I think the main problem is that the narrator is so single-mindedly selfish and obtuse that her antics are much more annoying and tiresome than they are funny. Which is not to say that there aren't a few funny scenes, because there are -- just not enough to justify the time spent reading. The book is 160 pages, which felt about 130-140 too many to me, I could imagine having enjoyed the same premise as a short story, but the same note is struck throughout, making it more tedious than I'm sure the author intended.
If the idea of riffing on Treasure Island appeals to you, check out Justin Scott's recasting of it as a World War II adventure with Nazi gold, or even better, one of the several novels written with Long John Silver as the protagonist, the best of which is Bjorn Larsson's Long John Silver.
Treasure Island!!! isn't very long & even has some Dorthy Parker-esque short story qualities, in that you understand character from her words & actions but nothing at all accurate from her own head. This reads like Chick Lit, except the narrator doesn't actually have any of the plucky, goodhearted but mistreated qualities of the usual chick. She thinks she is pursuing important self discovery by studying Treasure Island, but she gets everything wrong, which is just what humans do all the time, if not quite so badly as *she* (main character is nameless for the whole 173). Insidiously clever, I thought, but it's really just as well that my Book Club chose not to read this one.
Don’t take anything in this book at face value; it’s all a farce of the highest order.
Either that or our main character and heroine is the most self-centered, obnoxious, hard-to-get-along-with human being on the planet. With family and friends who are not far down the path themselves.
This has to be one of the oddest books I’ve ever read.
Yes, odder than 1Q84. At least that book was set in an alternate universe.
Not so this story, with a main character who works at a pet library, who reads Treasure Island and decides it has changed her life, who buys a parrot with money stolen from petty cash at the pet library, with a sister who is having an affair with the same elderly man that her own mother once slept with…It just goes on and on.
I can think of a dozen people who would loathe this book. Abhor. Possibly set on fire.
On the other hand, I can think of a dozen people who might think this Treasure Island (don’t forget the !!!) has changed their lives.
You decide.
Either that or our main character and heroine is the most self-centered, obnoxious, hard-to-get-along-with human being on the planet. With family and friends who are not far down the path themselves.
This has to be one of the oddest books I’ve ever read.
Yes, odder than 1Q84. At least that book was set in an alternate universe.
Not so this story, with a main character who works at a pet library, who reads Treasure Island and decides it has changed her life, who buys a parrot with money stolen from petty cash at the pet library, with a sister who is having an affair with the same elderly man that her own mother once slept with…It just goes on and on.
I can think of a dozen people who would loathe this book. Abhor. Possibly set on fire.
On the other hand, I can think of a dozen people who might think this Treasure Island (don’t forget the !!!) has changed their lives.
You decide.
haha. Possibly was just in the mood for a highly irreverent book. Sara Levine gets the award for the most unlikeable, narcissistic character in history!!
The storm today forced me to stay in the library cafe this afternoon, and it was a laugh-out-loud read. Unique, sophisticated voice, with characters of flesh-blood and humanity. The heroine so far is farcical.