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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
fast-paced
Great writing! Enjoyed the first half more than the second. I lost interest when she discussed middle school choir drama for an entire chapter.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I, along with everyone else on this planet probably, got to know Mara as the cute girl in Mrs. Doubtfire and Mathilda. That's it. I've never heard from her again, though I admit I wasn't actively keeping track. After all, when those movies came out I was 4 and 7 so I wasn't really following actors by then. I didn't even remember actors name.
Anyway, I think Mara Wilson is a great storyteller. She's funny, smart, honest and it's refreshing to see her talk about her childhood so honestly, embarrassing moments included.
So from that point of view it was a great book.
What bothered me though was that it was all over the place. Every chapter feels like a log entry in a diary, where she jumps through time so quickly it's hard to follow. Also, I felt as if there was a lack of depth. While it's funny and honest to the bone, the constant jumping back and forth in time made it pretty shallow at times. There were many points she touched upon that I wanted her to discuss in more detail but she just rushed by them.
So final rating: 3.5
Anyway, I think Mara Wilson is a great storyteller. She's funny, smart, honest and it's refreshing to see her talk about her childhood so honestly, embarrassing moments included.
So from that point of view it was a great book.
What bothered me though was that it was all over the place. Every chapter feels like a log entry in a diary, where she jumps through time so quickly it's hard to follow. Also, I felt as if there was a lack of depth. While it's funny and honest to the bone, the constant jumping back and forth in time made it pretty shallow at times. There were many points she touched upon that I wanted her to discuss in more detail but she just rushed by them.
So final rating: 3.5
This book is so good. Mara writes about her life with such raw honesty, you can’t help but feel that she should probably be your best friend. She is so relatable while living through experiences as a child star that few have experienced. I loved it, and I love her.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
Really liked it. She still seems precocious, and I loved what she shared. I just was in a headspace where I didn't want to engage with it more. Would definitely try again at some point, I think.
As a child I was obsessed with Matilda, even more so with the movie than with the book. To me Mara Wilson was the only Matilda there was and later I watched other of her children movies as well. Perhaps for that and other reasons as well this book feels so special to me and I wished it never ended. There were many times when I just felt so connected to Mara’s experience even though I’d never been a child actor. I believe it was because she really is so normal and down to earth. She talks openly about her mother’s death, her mental health (OCD, anxiety, depression) and finding herself after the “child-acting” days. She was an outsider, she changed schools, she didn’t belong, she failed, but in spite of that she persisted. She kept on writing, performing, being and trying. I smiled when she compared herself to Scarlet Johansson, her childhood friend, and how she wasn’t as pretty or successful as Scarlet. Or how she lost one or two teenage roles to Kristen Stewart which eventually resulted in her quitting acting. While reading this book I, too, have realized I wasn’t Scarlet or Kristen, I was Mara and it felt good and hopeful. In Mara’s words: “At the very least, I found my people. I was home.”
medium-paced