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drippingchiffon's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Ableism
Moderate: Death of parent, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Classism, Alcoholism, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, and Forced institutionalization
mmehdi_auteur's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse
itsreirei's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Child abuse
Minor: Forced institutionalization
rosemaryfay's review
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
This book is an infuriating sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs. It features Sally McBride who is by turns amusingly likeable and astonishingly racist and ableist. While Jean Webster continues to be an engaging and amusing author, and I love a slow burn romance as next as the next person, I simply cannot get over the absolutely abominable way Sally talks about some of the children and other disabled people.
This pervasive eugenics discussion honestly ruined the book for me. I finished it out of spite, but at 40% in, my note just says "I'm done." And it's true! Despite Webster's talent for developing proto-feminist characters in both her narrators and side characters (Betsy and Helen in this book particularly), the supposedly likeable narrator joking about the murder of a child under her care (BY ARSENIC. FROM THE DOCTOR.) because she is disabled is simply unforgivable. She...doesn't seem to grow much out of these beliefs as the book progresses, leaving me constantly worried about any child in her care who wasn't perfectly "normal," to use Sally's own horrible phrasing.
Also the love interest locking his wife who probably had a postpartum syndrome of some sort in an asylum is not cute or funny and I did not find find the ending satisfying at all.
I finished it, but i would strongly suggest that you look for your nineteen-teens literature elsewhere.
This pervasive eugenics discussion honestly ruined the book for me. I finished it out of spite, but at 40% in, my note just says "I'm done." And it's true! Despite Webster's talent for developing proto-feminist characters in both her narrators and side characters (Betsy and Helen in this book particularly), the supposedly likeable narrator joking about the murder of a child under her care (BY ARSENIC. FROM THE DOCTOR.) because she is disabled is simply unforgivable. She...doesn't seem to grow much out of these beliefs as the book progresses, leaving me constantly worried about any child in her care who wasn't perfectly "normal," to use Sally's own horrible phrasing.
I finished it, but i would strongly suggest that you look for your nineteen-teens literature elsewhere.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Mental illness
There isn't a trigger tag for eugenics but I cannot emphasize enough the major role that eugenics plays in this book. Several pages are devoted to explaining why not allowing disabled people to have children is a good thing, and that is the milder of examples.
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