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elmtreebooks's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Oof. Would not have finished were it not our book club pick this month.
Historical fiction but with no authentic sense of place. There were brief moments where the book was good, and the premise was a great story starting point! But overall the execution was trite and unlikable and a waste of a good idea. The worst part was reading the author’s notes at the end, and seeing how much potential this topic had in the hands of a more adept writer or with a better developmental editor that could help create actual character arcs that are satisfying.
My main issues:
- flowery writing stuffed with so many similes and metaphors that you’re often tripping over five in one paragraph. It makes the writing feel so trite and amateur, like reading a middle school age book report.
- I am biased against first person POV generally, but I especially hated that the two leads, Odile and Lily, were written with the same voice and immaturity. They both behaved and thought like a bratty teenager, which made sense for Lily, but Odile was purportedly a college grad and a woman so independently minded that she sought a career when it was unusual to do so. But other than that one act, she is a naïve idiot for the rest of the book. She is constantly cruel and judgmental to her “closest friends,” a thoughtless gossip, and does some truly heinous things throughout the book.
- She has moments of reflection (which oddly are written like they are reflections from the future and she’s telling the story of the past, but then the next line the verbs are present tense again? ) but she doesn’t actually learn from any of her choices until she runs away to Montana and takes no accountability with those she harms.
- “Do as I say, not as I did….” Is not a character arc.
- She claims innocence about the apartment trysts, but even if she had no idea the real reason why the apartments were empty… what possible explanation would have made her behavior ok? There was no excuse regardless of the real explanation?
- The world building lacked an authentic sense of place. Descriptions were glutted with unimportant factual details that didn’t create an emotional response, like an AP Euro history paper stuffed with rote memorizarion in an attempt to earn extra credit from the teacher. Yeah, you did the research — but fact-stuffing like that doesn’t evoke a sense of place and time.
- Overall, the character arcs were so messy and all over the place, so you were left with no one worth rooting for, except Mary Louise and maybe Lily. And Odile wasn’t worth loving to hate either. Just a frustrating trudge through a book that attempts to tell a story about a time of great complexity and conflict, but gives us the POV of a simpleton with no nuance or understanding of the world around her. She bumbles through the story, and the reader does too. She faces no consequences for her actions, and just runs away. It is the most uneventful non-development of a character arc.
- And seriously, I cannot overstate how many cheesy similes and metaphors were packed into this book. It was astonishing. If this hadn’t already been such a disappointing waste of time, I’d go back through and keep a tally.
Overall, deeply “meh” that veered into “ugh” territory regularly.
Historical fiction but with no authentic sense of place. There were brief moments where the book was good, and the premise was a great story starting point! But overall the execution was trite and unlikable and a waste of a good idea. The worst part was reading the author’s notes at the end, and seeing how much potential this topic had in the hands of a more adept writer or with a better developmental editor that could help create actual character arcs that are satisfying.
My main issues:
- flowery writing stuffed with so many similes and metaphors that you’re often tripping over five in one paragraph. It makes the writing feel so trite and amateur, like reading a middle school age book report.
- I am biased against first person POV generally, but I especially hated that the two leads, Odile and Lily, were written with the same voice and immaturity. They both behaved and thought like a bratty teenager, which made sense for Lily, but Odile was purportedly a college grad and a woman so independently minded that she sought a career when it was unusual to do so. But other than that one act, she is a naïve idiot for the rest of the book. She is constantly cruel and judgmental to her “closest friends,” a thoughtless gossip, and does some truly heinous things throughout the book.
- She has moments of reflection (which oddly are written like they are reflections from the future and she’s telling the story of the past, but then the next line the verbs are present tense again? ) but she doesn’t actually learn from any of her choices until she runs away to Montana and takes no accountability with those she harms.
- “Do as I say, not as I did….” Is not a character arc.
- She claims innocence about the apartment trysts, but even if she had no idea the real reason why the apartments were empty… what possible explanation would have made her behavior ok? There was no excuse regardless of the real explanation?
- The world building lacked an authentic sense of place. Descriptions were glutted with unimportant factual details that didn’t create an emotional response, like an AP Euro history paper stuffed with rote memorizarion in an attempt to earn extra credit from the teacher. Yeah, you did the research — but fact-stuffing like that doesn’t evoke a sense of place and time.
- Overall, the character arcs were so messy and all over the place, so you were left with no one worth rooting for, except Mary Louise and maybe Lily. And Odile wasn’t worth loving to hate either. Just a frustrating trudge through a book that attempts to tell a story about a time of great complexity and conflict, but gives us the POV of a simpleton with no nuance or understanding of the world around her. She bumbles through the story, and the reader does too. She faces no consequences for her actions, and just runs away. It is the most uneventful non-development of a character arc.
- And seriously, I cannot overstate how many cheesy similes and metaphors were packed into this book. It was astonishing. If this hadn’t already been such a disappointing waste of time, I’d go back through and keep a tally.
Overall, deeply “meh” that veered into “ugh” territory regularly.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault
Minor: War
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