Reviews

Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott

meganeveritt's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

5⭐️ kindle via library. Read aloud w our girls 18/13 and both gave it 5⭐️ as well. Just a delightful reading experience….well crafted sentences, beautiful life lessons and a glimpse into lives lived pouring into others with both realistic expectations and hopeful desires for them.

sarahanne8382's review against another edition

4.0

Ten years after we left Jo and her boys at Plumfield at the end of Little Men we return to find out what happened to them all as they grew up. Most of them aren't terribly surprising, but it was still great fun and I couldn't help but find myself getting wrapped up in the tales. There's one story line I don't agree with at all, but on the whole it was very enjoyable.

rchluther's review against another edition

3.0

I love this book for the closure to the characters. I love this book for the ending comments about "the earthquake". I care so much about many of these characters. But it loses points for the constant preaching and over-done women's rights sections. For the time period it was written in, it was probably great. For me it is so heavy handed.
However I love Rob & Teddy. I love Daisy & Demi. I love Nat & Dan. I adore Tommy Bangs. Just so many great side stories to make it worth rereading every so often!

momochi_19's review against another edition

emotional reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

skygerm03's review against another edition

2.0

love little women and love the sequel but this one dragged on a bit too much.

jmpitchford's review against another edition

5.0

Jo's Boys had a different feel than the other books to me. While I enjoyed the romances and lessons the kids learned, there was quite a bit of darkness, as well. At first, there were a lot of characters which, while I had seen before, I couldn't quite picture all of them in my mind until the middle of the book, when each one is given at least one chapter of his/her own. Seeing how Jo has developed since Little Women was fun. As a kid, I read Little Women over and over, but coming into Jo's Boys as an adult, I felt this was a mostly satisfying end to the saga, though there are a few endings I wish could have gone differently.

ameserole's review against another edition

3.0

"…books are always good company if you have the right sort. Let me pick out some for you.' And Mrs. Jo made a bee-line to the well-laden shelves, which were the joy of her heart and the comfort of her life.”







I DID IT! I really did it. I read a series within 4 days! I'm so proud of myself!!

Spoiler

Aside from falling asleep after reading the first chapter this book was a pretty good read. I
like all of the books tied into each other, well except for Good Wives. I just didn't like that book as much. But I loved the ending. I feel like the kids were more interesting than the sisters once I read Little Men but in Jo's Boys they are older and going out into the world to find where they belong and if they belong with someone as well.

I fell in love with the characters even more, except for Meg. For some reason I just did not like her character in this book. Also, I feel like I didn't like at least one character within each book...

I'm very happy that I've read these books because I feel like I don't read enough classics.
So thank you to everyone who wanted to do a buddy read on the Little Women series.

bluestjuice's review against another edition

2.0

In all honesty, this is a dreary book. Imagine the epilogue to the Harry Potter Series, which most people agree is somewhat hamfisted and not up to par, if not blatant fan service. Now imagine if J.K. Rowling had written it into a full eighth book, rather than a single chapter. That is what we have here. As the third (or fourth, depending on how you care to look at it) and final installment in the chronicle of the March sisters and their families, this draws much too heavily on the less-compelling Little Men for its characters and basically occupies itself giving small snippets and synopses of what happens to them when they reach adulthood. Half of the characters from Little Men are dismissed completely with two-line summaries, while the ones that remain are each dutifully given their trial, lesson, and ultimate happy ending. Mostly, the boys are married off to faceless but undoubtedly very sweet girls for whom it's impossible to care much, because they are such hollow caricatures. Two of the girls were so young in the preceding book that they are basically introduced fresh, and the best stories in all honesty have to do with their independent aspirations (theatrical Josie and pragmatic doctor Nan). There is a chapter early on in which Jo Bhaer, having acquired some literary success modeled directly off of Alcott's experience, relates the tribulations of being a famous author in that day and age. Of all the moralizing and sermonizing that happens in this book, that chapter rings the truest with both honest experience and humor. Otherwise, I could have been happy having this book compressed down to a single epilogue, a la Harry Potter.

zurpel's review against another edition

4.0

Little Men follows "Jo's Boys", as they grow up. Plumfield has developed from the small school for a handful of boys to a college and Jo's boys are on the verge of becoming adults. "Little Men" follows them in their lives as they try to become worthy men, find love and live through the occasional hardships and desasters of life.

As with "Little Woman" and "Jo's Boys", I really liked reading Little Men. The writing is just as wonderful as in the two preceding books. Learning about what happened to Jo's boys when they grew up is very interesting.

lauriestein's review against another edition

2.0

the real question: were laurie and jo having an affair?