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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
What a beautifully written story. We all feel alone and misunderstood at some point in our lives and we all feel vulnerable. This book takes a look at the "outcasts" and shows they are just as perfectly flawed as the rest of us.
A sensitive, well-written coming-of-age story. I was skeptical of the book at first for a few reasons:
There's a child narrator, which I often find cloying. Brunt avoids making her protagonist, June, precocious or annoying. She carefully balances the worlds between childlike imaginative play and discovering difficult complex truths about her family.
Additionally, AIDS is a major topic in the book. After several of my recent reads, I was worried it would be handled too sentimentally. Brunt avoids this as well. Her depiction of the unnecessary paranoia and stigma around this disease in the 1980s is handled quite well.
Initially the characters seem too black and white. June's sister Greta, plays cruel tricks; June's parents demonstrate blatant homophobia. The beauty of this book is that Brunt allows her characters to change and develop in believable ways. As June slowly grows up and realizes that her family members are more complex than she gave them credit for, each person--sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically-- reveals new depths.
There's a child narrator, which I often find cloying. Brunt avoids making her protagonist, June, precocious or annoying. She carefully balances the worlds between childlike imaginative play and discovering difficult complex truths about her family.
Additionally, AIDS is a major topic in the book. After several of my recent reads, I was worried it would be handled too sentimentally. Brunt avoids this as well. Her depiction of the unnecessary paranoia and stigma around this disease in the 1980s is handled quite well.
Initially the characters seem too black and white. June's sister Greta, plays cruel tricks; June's parents demonstrate blatant homophobia. The beauty of this book is that Brunt allows her characters to change and develop in believable ways. As June slowly grows up and realizes that her family members are more complex than she gave them credit for, each person--sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically-- reveals new depths.
That was really beautiful and heart-breaking. June's uncle and godfather is HIV positive and dying. He's also a renowned painter and his last painting shows 14yo June and her 16yo sister Greta. It's the 80s, so the AIDS hysteria is peaking.
After Uncle Finn's death, secrets emerge. Of her uncle's lover who supposedly gave Finn AIDS and thus killed him. While her parents are stuck in their offices because of tax season (they're both accountants), June starts to meet the mysterious murderer of her uncle, Toby. She also has to deal with her estranged and cruel sister, while keeping her meetings with Tony secret.
This was a very fine YA book which nevertheless suffered from the same issues as others: the protagonists are too young. Why couldn't Greta be 18 and June at least 16? Yes, one can be 14 and sort of mature, but not like that. It felt off. And some of the scenes with Tony felt very...weird. I know they were supposed to be weird, but they also made me uncomfortable. And I also hated the ending.
Yet the novel showed how grief works and how deep childish or teenage infatuation can run. How children / young adults can see things differently than their parents, how they are more open minded, more forgiving, braver. I also liked June as a protagonist, she's not the usual protagonist, she also shuns away from the expected teenage romance. All the topics in this novel are very adult, heavy and hard. I am lucky that I was able to read that novel, thanks to a student from one of my classes who gave it to me. This is one of the books that shows where literature can go. How deeply it can affect us.
Five Stars.
After Uncle Finn's death, secrets emerge. Of her uncle's lover who supposedly gave Finn AIDS and thus killed him. While her parents are stuck in their offices because of tax season (they're both accountants), June starts to meet the mysterious murderer of her uncle, Toby. She also has to deal with her estranged and cruel sister, while keeping her meetings with Tony secret.
This was a very fine YA book which nevertheless suffered from the same issues as others: the protagonists are too young. Why couldn't Greta be 18 and June at least 16? Yes, one can be 14 and sort of mature, but not like that. It felt off. And some of the scenes with Tony felt very...weird. I know they were supposed to be weird, but they also made me uncomfortable. And I also hated the ending.
Yet the novel showed how grief works and how deep childish or teenage infatuation can run. How children / young adults can see things differently than their parents, how they are more open minded, more forgiving, braver. I also liked June as a protagonist, she's not the usual protagonist, she also shuns away from the expected teenage romance. All the topics in this novel are very adult, heavy and hard. I am lucky that I was able to read that novel, thanks to a student from one of my classes who gave it to me. This is one of the books that shows where literature can go. How deeply it can affect us.
Five Stars.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
i was definitely hoping this would be better than it was. the writing just felt...flat. a bit lifeless at times.
Something in me will not give this book 5 stars. It's almost there but something is not quite and I cannot put my finger on it. This is an emotional and rewarding read about the different faces and shapes of love and lies. Worth every second spent reading it and more.
emotional
hopeful
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
I read this book as a plan to read a missed popular book from 2012 onward every month, thanks to an online book club’s challenge. I can see why this book was popular when released. It took me a while to disconnect from today’s world and societal views and put my “over a decade ago” pants on when trying to connect to the book. At first I was looking at the wrong things as the emphasis of the novel but when talking to a friend about it, I realized I was focusing on the things that were just part of the story, not THE story. I did not love the plot, and really disliked Greta throughout- which of course is by design, but prevented me from loving the sister relationship. Overall, a book about grief and the teenage experience is something I could appreciate, I just wish I read it 12 years ago.
This book was very emotional in a good way. I wanted a Finn in my life and just wanted to wrap my arms around June and console her in her grief.