Reviews

The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat

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beth_zovko's review against another edition

4.0

3.5. Dipped a bit in the second half, but overall really resonate of being a teen girl in the late 90s and finding your way (or not) through your 30s.

Shows, not tells, the effects unresolved childhood trauma has on an adult person: invasive thoughts, distorted perceptions, listlessness.

I loved the contrast between brash teenage Nina and the inhibited adult she becomes. The bit about the blog troll took me out of the story, though.

kmae314's review against another edition

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5.0

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that I didn’t want to put down. This was hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.

tsauxghiegh's review against another edition

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3.0

Honestly it was well written in the way that it felt like a impressionists journey of a girls life, and that kind of writing is hard to achieve. It's hard to put in frequent time-skips and also make them work, but it works in this story because it really is an impression of a girls life. As for the story, there wasn't really a major problem or issue to overcome, but just a little life bumps that show up throughout her life. Not terrible, but I wish there was a little more substance to it, like if she thought more about what happened to her at 14 or what happened to her high school friend instead of them dropping out of the book only to reappear in the closing pages.