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chloeshawe's review
3.0
I wanted a story about a bitter ex-librarian spiraling but I didn’t want a bitter ex-librarian to spiral into getting everything she wanted by cheating on her honestly LOVELY and too good for her husband, realizing that her daughter does love her in her own way, and then getting her dear job back in the end anyway.
athomehangel's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
amyredgreen's review
3.0
This had a lot going for it but it didn't really come together for me. I was so uninterested in the main character and I got sick of hearing from her. Literally every other character was more compelling to me than her. Kind of a cool trippy ending though.
jenna_x_w's review against another edition
3.0
This book seems to be concerned with points of view and the way we tell stories ABOUT ourselves and others TO ourselves and others.
I was pretty engrossed at the beginning, when Maeve, a Maine paraprofessional librarian who seems also to be dealing with midlife crisis and empty nest syndrome, experiences several difficult events at work as a result of budget issues as well as a supposedly false accusation by Libby, a supposedly troubled teen library user.
Maeve catastrophizes about all of this and proceeds to have a low key mental breakdown, which collides uncomfortably with the arrival onto the scene of Harrison Riddles, a successful author who is kind of like a suave litfic Brooklynite playboy version of Stephen King and to whom Maeve has been writing fangirl letters for some time begging him to visit the library and also to intervene on her behalf regarding her Troubles there. Turns out Riddles is more interested in writing about/appropriating the life of Sudanese refugee Willie, who once was another library teen patron but now is a young adult marrying Maeve’s hipster librarian colleague. Amidst all this, Maeve’s young adult daughter Paige is trotting the globe in pursuit of a horticulture/botany career and also left a bunch of mysterious plants behind in Maeve’s dubious care, and did I mention that Maeve is also married to a kindly and responsible if sort of dull accountant who is largely absentee attending to work and family business?
This is all interesting enough setup, and there are even more miscellaneous details woven in, but for me it never felt cohesive or realistic. I had trouble connecting with the story and especially the characters and all of these challenges to my empathy and attention just worsened for me as I went along. I ultimately decided that the book only makes sense and is appealing to me if Maeve dreamed or hallucinated or made up the whole thing, which I do not believe is the author’s intention at all, but that is the point of view I am choosing to take and the story I’m deciding to tell myself about this novel and my experience reading it.
This is one of those books I’m okay with just not being smart enough to appreciate. And I honestly just wanted way more Libby and to hear her side and story, if anything.
I was pretty engrossed at the beginning, when Maeve, a Maine paraprofessional librarian who seems also to be dealing with midlife crisis and empty nest syndrome, experiences several difficult events at work as a result of budget issues as well as a supposedly false accusation by Libby, a supposedly troubled teen library user.
Maeve catastrophizes about all of this and proceeds to have a low key mental breakdown, which collides uncomfortably with the arrival onto the scene of Harrison Riddles, a successful author who is kind of like a suave litfic Brooklynite playboy version of Stephen King and to whom Maeve has been writing fangirl letters for some time begging him to visit the library and also to intervene on her behalf regarding her Troubles there. Turns out Riddles is more interested in writing about/appropriating the life of Sudanese refugee Willie, who once was another library teen patron but now is a young adult marrying Maeve’s hipster librarian colleague. Amidst all this, Maeve’s young adult daughter Paige is trotting the globe in pursuit of a horticulture/botany career and also left a bunch of mysterious plants behind in Maeve’s dubious care, and did I mention that Maeve is also married to a kindly and responsible if sort of dull accountant who is largely absentee attending to work and family business?
This is all interesting enough setup, and there are even more miscellaneous details woven in, but for me it never felt cohesive or realistic. I had trouble connecting with the story and especially the characters and all of these challenges to my empathy and attention just worsened for me as I went along. I ultimately decided that the book only makes sense and is appealing to me if Maeve dreamed or hallucinated or made up the whole thing, which I do not believe is the author’s intention at all, but that is the point of view I am choosing to take and the story I’m deciding to tell myself about this novel and my experience reading it.
This is one of those books I’m okay with just not being smart enough to appreciate. And I honestly just wanted way more Libby and to hear her side and story, if anything.
megan_rang's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was very strange. A librarian sees a couple of terms being inappropriate in the next bathroom stall. She doesn’t report them. Later the girl reports her for watching the couple. Maeve’s life gets turned upside down and nothing stays the same.
maggiegable's review
reflective
fast-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? Yes
4.0
LOVED. This novel follows Maeve, a small-town librarian, so utterly in love with her job, who is accused by a teenage library patron of peeping on her fooling around with a boy in the bathroom and later fired from her job due to budget cuts. Maeve is not able to let anything go, very relatable in my opinion though I've never been in this exact situation.
The narrator describes this period of Maeve's life as an interlude and I think seeing this novel as that, an interlude really puts the purpose of this book into perspective. She is having a mid-life crisis, learning so much about herself, changing so much.
Maeve is completely unhinged, and no one, not even her, really sees that, but I liked that about her.
Harrison, the author she invites to speak at the library, was so utterly insufferable, but I think it made sense for his character.
It's a fun summer read!
The narrator describes this period of Maeve's life as an interlude and I think seeing this novel as that, an interlude really puts the purpose of this book into perspective. She is having a mid-life crisis, learning so much about herself, changing so much.
Maeve is completely unhinged, and no one, not even her, really sees that, but I liked that about her.
Harrison, the author she invites to speak at the library, was so utterly insufferable, but I think it made sense for his character.
It's a fun summer read!
maren_stewart's review
3.0
I was excited to start this book after reading the reviews, and although I enjoyed it and the writing is great, I was left confused and let down. I originally gave this 4 stars, but after thinking about it for a day, I changed my rating to 3.
I was really engrossed at the beginning and wondered where this story would go. The main character, Maeve, became increasingly annoying, cringy (Maeve, stop going back to the library, please!) and unhinged (but not in a good way) and the ending was a let down. The author did a wonderful job of stringing the reader along and building tension, but the build-up led to nothing.
I was really engrossed at the beginning and wondered where this story would go. The main character, Maeve, became increasingly annoying, cringy (Maeve, stop going back to the library, please!) and unhinged (but not in a good way) and the ending was a let down. The author did a wonderful job of stringing the reader along and building tension, but the build-up led to nothing.