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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought the Little March Women were annoying. they've got nothing on dear ol' dad.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A really nice read. The more I read, the more I wanted to know what happens to Mr. March! And I found it very cool that she included her sources at the end, and how she came to write the book, and what was taken from real life and what was fiction. A great portrait of America during the beginning of the Civil War.
I had a strong negative reaction to this book through the first 2/3rds. It only started to turn a bit when the Marmee section began and Brooks started to deconstruct some of the assumptions Mr. March made about the world and specifically about the women he loved in the world. I liked a lot of that last section except that it still contributed to a big sin of this book, which is being fanfiction that makes me like characters and moments from the original canon less, at least when viewed through the lens of this author's perspective. I don't think it ruined the original or anything like that but I don't think it added to my appreciation of Little Women. I also didn't enjoy it as a Civil War book. My feelings during the first parts were mostly that it was a book that used Black suffering as a way to develop the emotional arcs of white characters, which sucks, and even though this got shifted a little when Grace got the opportunity to call Mr. March out a bit, I still think that it's a book that's primarily concerned with how he feels about the world and honestly I'm just not that interested in how this version of Mr. March feels about the world.
Side-note: There's this bit about how Marmee was Mrs. March's childhood nickname and that's why even Mr. March calls her that in his POV but I think Marmee is just how the girls said Mommy in their little New England accents. I could be wrong but if not, I found it pretty distracting. You're a grown man, Mr. March, stop calling your wife Mommy.
Side-note: There's this bit about how Marmee was Mrs. March's childhood nickname and that's why even Mr. March calls her that in his POV but I think Marmee is just how the girls said Mommy in their little New England accents. I could be wrong but if not, I found it pretty distracting. You're a grown man, Mr. March, stop calling your wife Mommy.
I'm torn about this book. I think that Brooks is a very good writer with a wonderful talent for prose. Year of Wonders (also by Brooks) is one of my favorite books. I found myself wishing that I could like Mr. March more. He didn't seem like a real person to me, but a platform from which to preach at the reader. Mr. March wants to be a martyr. I'm not sure how much of this is very convincing writing on the part of Brooks, and how much of it is using literature to push a social agenda. In all fairness, Little Women is guilty of the same thing, so perhaps Brooks did this on purpose. My favorite parts of the book were the parts from Mrs. March's perspective. She seemed like a real person to me, whereas Mr. March seemed like an caricature.
Being a huge fan of novels that take place during the US civil war and the novel Little Women I could not wait to dive into this one and I was not disappointed! March is a is really well-written and researched work of fiction based on real life people/events. I am always intrigued when an author takes a well know novel or character and builds a whole new story around them. The *only* thing I found off putting was how Marmee was portrayed, I found her rather unlikable and she came across as a spoiled brat 95% of the time. A thumb up for this one!!
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad