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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
4.5 stars rounded up because the audiobook performance was incredible
I love Rosie Frankel. She writes about such important things that I feel as a society are hard for most to accept and understand. She is a beautiful writer and this book was nothing but that.
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed the first 60% of this but then the 'breakthroughs' felt too coincidental. The triplets were well characterised though and the overall message of the book was thought-provoking. Would be a good book club pick.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I was intrigued by the premise of this book, which seemed to boast of three quirky book-loving sisters solving mysteries in their sleepy hometown, but what I actually got was a lot deeper and more philosophical than that fun, trite idea.
Mab, Monday, and Mirabel take turns narrating the story of their hometown which was devastated years ago by a unconscionable chemical company that poisoned their river over sixteen years ago and then abandoned the small town to its fate, leaving them poorer and unhealthier than when the company arrived. The triplets’ mother has been unsuccessfully trying to prosecute a lawsuit against the company for years, though she can never find the evidence she needs. Until, of course, the start of this story when the town realizes that the company is trying to reopen and the CEO’s family have come to live among them, including their sixteen-year-old son. Thus our three heroines wryly share their perspectives as they confront who was responsible for what happened, how much justice they can expect, and the realities of trying to put a stop to corporate greed.
This is a complex novel that does not shy away from the issues of reparation. How much is enough to compensate for the health and prosperity of an entire town? What would be the point of getting a settlement anyway since the town would remain impoverished and the people would still be sick? How much can children be blamed for the sins of their fathers, and when is it ok to forgive and forget? The sisters confront all of these questions amongst their complex and interesting neighbors. The town is charming in a Mayberry/Mitford/small-town America way with a slough of great characters struggling realistically to put their lives back together, and yet the humorous moments only serve to highlight the tragedy of what all of these people went through. I also love Frankel’s treatment of the girls’ disabilities. She confronts ableism in all of its insidiously “helpful” forms and the ways that people with disabilities manage to achieve greatness in their lives and a standing in the community despite society’s tendency to discount their contributions. It is a beautiful story whose first half draws you in easily.
However, this novel highlights one of my major problems with adult fiction. It just dithers around too long! The last half of the novel drags ever-so-slowly as the sisters all have to philosophize about the motivations around them, spending pages on everyone’s reactions and what it means for a river to return to its original home and other such nonsense. I’m sure Frankel believes her prose is beautiful and that each sentence needed to be in there, but it really just padded the page count, especially since all of her sentences tended to be the same length of about seven words. Not everyone can be a Dickens or a Jane Austen and be able to perfectly turn a phrase. Sometimes you just need to tell a straightforward story. The bones of this novel were really good, and I understood the themes long before Frankel decided to spoon feed them to me in the last eighty pages. If she could have just maintained momentum until the moment when the girls decided to then I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, I skimmed the last hundred pages just trying to make it through Frankel’s rambling to find out what happened. Nearly all adult fiction writers tend to wax philosophical and cannot seem to cut any of their “exquisite” prose when a more efficient novel might have had greater impact. Just let the story’s events drive home the theme.
I also had slight issues with the conclusion of the problem. The company seemed inexorable and unconquerable, resisting all efforts to expose them and batting away every obstacle to their reopening with relentless PR and limitless money. They were apparently able to bribe and lawyer their way out of all consequences for past actions and all red tape for opening the new plant, and the town, in my opinion, unrealistically Yes, I know stories like this have happened, but I think Frankel went too far making the villains too evil and the good guys too stupid. It was too black and white for the complex themes she was going for. The short and simple solution at the end seemed to bypass a lot of earlier problems and handwave them away, as if the fact that the girls had decided to do it made all of the earlier objections to the plan moot. The town, the girls, the sixteen-year-old boy, the mayor, and the girl’s mother flip-flopped around on their opinions and stances on the issues confronting them in order to increase tension, and after a while the ups-and-downs began to pall on me. In the end, Frankel’s point seemed to be that the wealthy have to be morally corrupt in order to maintain their wealth and that expecting moral rectitude from them is an oxymoron. Wealth equals moral bankruptcy inherently. I just can’t agree with that conclusion. Life is too complex for that, and Frankel’s simple solution to simple villainy does not take into account the intricacies of problems like this.
I still very much enjoyed reading this, and Frankel’s detailed description of how injustices like this can happen, as well as her sensitive portrayal of disabilities, makes this a worthwhile read, but it could have been a better novel with a more efficient prose style and an ending worthy of the complexity of the earlier chapters.
Mab, Monday, and Mirabel take turns narrating the story of their hometown which was devastated years ago by a unconscionable chemical company that poisoned their river over sixteen years ago and then abandoned the small town to its fate, leaving them poorer and unhealthier than when the company arrived. The triplets’ mother has been unsuccessfully trying to prosecute a lawsuit against the company for years, though she can never find the evidence she needs. Until, of course, the start of this story when the town realizes that the company is trying to reopen and the CEO’s family have come to live among them, including their sixteen-year-old son. Thus our three heroines wryly share their perspectives as they confront who was responsible for what happened, how much justice they can expect, and the realities of trying to put a stop to corporate greed.
This is a complex novel that does not shy away from the issues of reparation. How much is enough to compensate for the health and prosperity of an entire town? What would be the point of getting a settlement anyway since the town would remain impoverished and the people would still be sick? How much can children be blamed for the sins of their fathers, and when is it ok to forgive and forget? The sisters confront all of these questions amongst their complex and interesting neighbors. The town is charming in a Mayberry/Mitford/small-town America way with a slough of great characters struggling realistically to put their lives back together, and yet the humorous moments only serve to highlight the tragedy of what all of these people went through. I also love Frankel’s treatment of the girls’ disabilities. She confronts ableism in all of its insidiously “helpful” forms and the ways that people with disabilities manage to achieve greatness in their lives and a standing in the community despite society’s tendency to discount their contributions. It is a beautiful story whose first half draws you in easily.
However, this novel highlights one of my major problems with adult fiction. It just dithers around too long! The last half of the novel drags ever-so-slowly as the sisters all have to philosophize about the motivations around them, spending pages on everyone’s reactions and what it means for a river to return to its original home and other such nonsense. I’m sure Frankel believes her prose is beautiful and that each sentence needed to be in there, but it really just padded the page count, especially since all of her sentences tended to be the same length of about seven words. Not everyone can be a Dickens or a Jane Austen and be able to perfectly turn a phrase. Sometimes you just need to tell a straightforward story. The bones of this novel were really good, and I understood the themes long before Frankel decided to spoon feed them to me in the last eighty pages. If she could have just maintained momentum until the moment when the girls decided to
Spoiler
take matters into their own hands by breaking the damI also had slight issues with the conclusion of the problem. The company seemed inexorable and unconquerable, resisting all efforts to expose them and batting away every obstacle to their reopening with relentless PR and limitless money. They were apparently able to bribe and lawyer their way out of all consequences for past actions and all red tape for opening the new plant, and the town, in my opinion, unrealistically
Spoiler
rolled over for them without protest.I still very much enjoyed reading this, and Frankel’s detailed description of how injustices like this can happen, as well as her sensitive portrayal of disabilities, makes this a worthwhile read, but it could have been a better novel with a more efficient prose style and an ending worthy of the complexity of the earlier chapters.
challenging
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Mab, Monday, and Mirabel are sixteen-year-old triplets who live with their mother, Nora, in the town of Bourne.
Bourne was in the news seventeen years earlier when the water turned green and people and pets started getting ill. Nora has been fighting for justice against a chemical company that shut down after the environmental disaster that led to the undrinkable water and the sickness, including the death of the girls' father.
Though Bourne is an unusual little town; they have a high school with one track for those who need "extra help with their bodies" and another track for those who need extra help with their brains). Nothing really happened in the town, at least nothing out of the ordinary for Bourne. But then something did happen - the family who owned the chemical plant moved to town. So I don't inadvertently give spoilers, I won't say any more about the plot.
This story was told in chapters that started with Mab (one, first born), then Monday (two, second born), and Mirabel (three, third born), and the chapters then repeated one-two-three throughout the book. The characters, in particular, the triplets are real and wonderful. The audiobook had a different narrator for each girl and they were all excellent. The different narrators really gave a very distinctive voice to each sister (though I think their words and thoughts made them distinct as well), and Mirabel's voice (Mirabel is unable to speak) was provided as it would sound with audio assisted voice technology - it was great.
I did enjoy listening to this book, it was charming, had some humor, and I liked the character development and the bond of sisterhood between the triplets. I really think this book should be marketed as YA.
Thank you to McMillan Audio and NetGalley for an advance copy of this audiobook.
Bourne was in the news seventeen years earlier when the water turned green and people and pets started getting ill. Nora has been fighting for justice against a chemical company that shut down after the environmental disaster that led to the undrinkable water and the sickness, including the death of the girls' father.
Though Bourne is an unusual little town; they have a high school with one track for those who need "extra help with their bodies" and another track for those who need extra help with their brains). Nothing really happened in the town, at least nothing out of the ordinary for Bourne. But then something did happen - the family who owned the chemical plant moved to town. So I don't inadvertently give spoilers, I won't say any more about the plot.
This story was told in chapters that started with Mab (one, first born), then Monday (two, second born), and Mirabel (three, third born), and the chapters then repeated one-two-three throughout the book. The characters, in particular, the triplets are real and wonderful. The audiobook had a different narrator for each girl and they were all excellent. The different narrators really gave a very distinctive voice to each sister (though I think their words and thoughts made them distinct as well), and Mirabel's voice (Mirabel is unable to speak) was provided as it would sound with audio assisted voice technology - it was great.
I did enjoy listening to this book, it was charming, had some humor, and I liked the character development and the bond of sisterhood between the triplets. I really think this book should be marketed as YA.
Thank you to McMillan Audio and NetGalley for an advance copy of this audiobook.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes