217 reviews for:

The Clasp

Sloane Crosley

3.07 AVERAGE

laurencew's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

blafferty's review against another edition

5.0

Extremely enjoyable, clever, and satisfying - like everything of hers I’ve read.

ursulamonarch's review against another edition

3.0

For every perfectly created phrase in this book, there was a line that would make me cringe. I have enjoyed the author's essays, but this story was often too precious. Additionally, I found the characters surprisingly indistinct. However, it was readable enough overall, and I was delighted that The Necklace was included at the end.

kirabind's review against another edition

4.0

Crosley feels at home in the novel, and The Clasp—about college friends who reunite at a wedding that propels them on an international adventure—is a light and lovely read, perfect for a rainy afternoon or a day at the beach. Crosley’s signature voice is there (“the thought of not sharing information for the benefit of the male ego made her want to burn her bra. Though the bra she was wearing was not priced for protest: $50 on sale”) but almost as if to compensate for her background in nonfiction, Crosley has also crafted a thoughtful plot, a little too tidy in its execution but otherwise a pleasant surprise.

[FULL REVIEW]

shgmclicious's review against another edition

Okay, so here is why I don't tend to read a lot of Literary Fiction by Well Reviewed Whites, and when I do engage, I have mixed feelings about it.

So being 30 and just enough away from high school and away from college to have Thoughts and Feels about it, this was totally the book for me, and I think it's kind of spot on for that sort of post-college, millennial feel. The book is third person, alternating three different perspectives, and the protagonists and their friends are fully fleshed out and alive. The premise as described in the flap copy isn't really the premise as it happens in the book, and the premise in the book gets realized in the way the flap copy promises rather than what such a premise would really demand, and if that doesn't make sense to you, read the book and then get back to me. Basically, I mean that

Spoiler

the WWII and Nazi implications of what Johanna tells Victor are barely engaged with when the quest actually begins, and so really I don't know why it was there at all--Crosley could just as well have made it about a picture Victor finds interesting with an address on it

What gets me about NYT-Reviewed Literary Fiction For Adults is just how damn caucasian it all is--and I mean that literally, in what it's populated with, but also figuratively, culturally. This is one of those books that suffers from thinking it's more self aware than it actually is and not actually making a distinction between just how obnoxiously obtuse some of the characters are and how obnoxiously obtuse the author is. Case in point: pretty much any time and any way a description is given to a nonwhite person it's done in some off-color-but-not-objectively-or-aggressively-offensive-and-therefore-no-white-editor-or-white-reader-would-likely-notice-it-and-that's-the-problem-in-publishing way. Also, there's the I-put-long-portions-solely-in-French-with-no-translation-and-that's-not-objectively-a-problem-since-the-characters-all-understand-it-but-it's-another-problem-with-publishing-that-people-whine-about-brown-people-languages-not-having-translations-but-are-happy-to-let-French-slide thing that bothers me.

All in all, this was a perfectly fine read, and it's way better than, like a lot of other novels of this ilk, especially 95% of novels written by white men, and I don't feel like I wasted a read or anything, but I do think it leaves a lot to be desired and is a pretty good example of why I don't bother to do too much of this stuff.

lil_poundcake's review against another edition

4.0

Well-written, but superficial.

jbl7701's review against another edition

2.0

This actually took me longer than two days to read. I kept starting and stopping to the point where I almost gave up. The first half of the book was drawn out. Introducing the main characters of Kezia, Victor and Nathaniel who are friends from college now in their late 20’s. The story of “The Necklace” factors heavily into the novel. I kept waiting for the story to get better. It didn’t. I didn’t really care about the characters or the necklace. I’m sure I was supposed to read into the meaning of “The Necklace” short story and the parallels to the character but I couldn’t.

jenni_ito's review against another edition

1.0

So distracted by grammatical errors that I couldn't enjoy the book at all, and on top of that didn't connect with any of the characters.

natalie126's review against another edition

3.0

I put this on my to-read list based on the recommendation of Mindy Kaling. It was a mostly enjoyable read but not particularly memorable. I was satisfied with the character progression by the end of the book. I also enjoyed the central metaphor around the clasp of a necklace. Crosley had some smart observations about life sprinkled throughout the book. I liked it but didn't love it. There is a fair amount of profanity in this book FYI.

alicefay4's review against another edition

4.0

Sloane Crosley is the sort of writer that makes you want to be a writer. And not in a anyone-could-write-this-Twilight-drivel way. In the sense that her writing is so conversational and flowing that she makes it look easy. Loved her non fiction, this is a solid first novel. I would like to be her best friend.