Reviews - Mary Jane | The StoryGraph

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5.21k reviews for:

Mary Jane

Jessica Anya Blau

4.11 AVERAGE

milliii33's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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

emmakgarber's review against another edition

5.0

i loved this one so much more than i was anticipating. it felt nostalgic and silly and real and thoughtful and complex and so many other things. a loved and related to so many of the characters and laughed out loud at so many different points through the book. a new favorite of mine!!

kristhea's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

futurememory's review against another edition

4.0

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

A sweet, delightful, gentle and summery novel, Mary Jane fits into a favored microgenre of mine: rock star-adjacent 70s drama. Watching Almost Famous as a teenager probably changed my brain chemistry in certain ways.

The titular character experiences a wonderful, life-changing summer while nannying for an unorthodox (at least to her 50s-style parents) household. A lot of the vignettes are sweet, the writing is breezy, and the drama is short-lived and not too dramatic. There's dysfunction, but it's overshadowed by love.

I do have to say, the novel is probably too gentle at points, especially regarding its ending. This is cozy and sundrenched in the best ways. I probably would have wanted more teeth in the conclusion. But this is a really lovely beach read of a book, one that was very fun to sit in during July and August.