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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
I picked this book up after watching the Netflix movie adaptation, and I’ve gotta say that I prefer the movie. I’m fully onboard with the reality that you can’t just film a movie page-by-page from a book, storytelling that works in print doesn’t always translate to screen and vice versa.
****SPOILERS****
******************
With that, some of the changes didn’t phase me at all: TifAni’s father is present in the book (barely) but not at all in the movie, which is a no-brainer - why would you introduce an “important” character that we’re never really going to see. Most of the more significant changes in the movie I do prefer over the book, though - like Mr. Larson being a much older character and the absence of romantic entanglement.
The various resolutions in the movie were also much more satisfying than the book. In the movie she gets her NYT job, while in the book she makes a lateral (underwhelming) move to a similar magazine. The book has no article sharing her story, which for how focused she is on serious writing feels like a disservice to her once you see it in the movie. One of the criticisms I saw in another review was about how angry or mean she was towards other women, and I see what they’re saying. That’s certainly an element in the movie, though less intense, and there’s also a much more accepting, settled kind of energy that comes from her publishing her article.
I’m not sure when it was added, but there was an author’s note at the end detailing that while this is a fictional story & characters it was heavily influenced by her own experiences. With that note and writing this out - I almost wonder if some of the reader criticisms get back to the fact that this story is grounded in real life. We’re messy, often mean, humans who rarely get the kind of fulfilling conclusions we see in media. Arguably they’re so nice and prevalent in media for that very reason, we’re desperate for a neat bow at the end. Movie TifAni I would argue is much more the kind of person many of us want to be - she goes through all this shit and pain but ultimately comes out the other side with a life that she loves and has built herself. Book TifAni might just be a little too close to home, an uncomfortable look in the mirror.
****SPOILERS****
******************
With that, some of the changes didn’t phase me at all: TifAni’s father is present in the book (barely) but not at all in the movie, which is a no-brainer - why would you introduce an “important” character that we’re never really going to see. Most of the more significant changes in the movie I do prefer over the book, though - like Mr. Larson being a much older character and the absence of romantic entanglement.
The various resolutions in the movie were also much more satisfying than the book. In the movie she gets her NYT job, while in the book she makes a lateral (underwhelming) move to a similar magazine. The book has no article sharing her story, which for how focused she is on serious writing feels like a disservice to her once you see it in the movie. One of the criticisms I saw in another review was about how angry or mean she was towards other women, and I see what they’re saying. That’s certainly an element in the movie, though less intense, and there’s also a much more accepting, settled kind of energy that comes from her publishing her article.
I’m not sure when it was added, but there was an author’s note at the end detailing that while this is a fictional story & characters it was heavily influenced by her own experiences. With that note and writing this out - I almost wonder if some of the reader criticisms get back to the fact that this story is grounded in real life. We’re messy, often mean, humans who rarely get the kind of fulfilling conclusions we see in media. Arguably they’re so nice and prevalent in media for that very reason, we’re desperate for a neat bow at the end. Movie TifAni I would argue is much more the kind of person many of us want to be - she goes through all this shit and pain but ultimately comes out the other side with a life that she loves and has built herself. Book TifAni might just be a little too close to home, an uncomfortable look in the mirror.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
TWS!! Rape, school shootings, eating disorders, pill/drug use
challenging
dark
slow-paced
soulless writing, highly skippable
i distinctly recall this book being one of the first that made me question anything reese witherspoon gushed about.
i love thrillers, i love unlikeable characters, and i hated this book. it was really hard to get through. the somewhat heavy subject matter was handled poorly, and yet i didn’t care about any of the characters.
unfortunately, it is too late for me to go back and unread this book.
i distinctly recall this book being one of the first that made me question anything reese witherspoon gushed about.
i love thrillers, i love unlikeable characters, and i hated this book. it was really hard to get through. the somewhat heavy subject matter was handled poorly, and yet i didn’t care about any of the characters.
unfortunately, it is too late for me to go back and unread this book.
This book was very readable, but overall I thought it was just okay. There were a few character traits in the main character that I found difficult to understand in the context of the story, and there was one relationship that also didn't make sense to me. Good, not great.
There should most definitely be all kinds of trigger warnings for this book, biggest one would be the eating disorder. But then there’s also the sexual assaults and a massive school massacre. Just read at your own risk.
First of all, how and why the hell would they make THIS into a movie. There are so many other amazing books that could be made into movies and deserve the recognition more than this book. Aside from an insane and tragic story line - which let’s be real, we don’t need to see any of this in a movie, it’s in the fricking news enough - there was nothing that notable. I was most interested in Mr. Larsen because he seems to be the only real decent human lurking in this book. I was here for him, and he’s like the only reason I continued with the book. And even so, he literally didn’t matter and he just ended up being some prop for the main character to explore her background again before the stupid documentary.
Anyway I could go on but overall this was just disappointing.
First of all, how and why the hell would they make THIS into a movie. There are so many other amazing books that could be made into movies and deserve the recognition more than this book. Aside from an insane and tragic story line - which let’s be real, we don’t need to see any of this in a movie, it’s in the fricking news enough - there was nothing that notable. I was most interested in Mr. Larsen because he seems to be the only real decent human lurking in this book. I was here for him, and he’s like the only reason I continued with the book. And even so, he literally didn’t matter and he just ended up being some prop for the main character to explore her background again before the stupid documentary.
Anyway I could go on but overall this was just disappointing.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes