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3.0 AVERAGE
3.0 AVERAGE
This author was all over the place. It was like she couldn't decide on a concrete idea - she just kept adding and adding and adding.
I've been on a reading hiatus but am trying to get back in the habit. I picked up this book at the library because it was in a "picks" section and felt appealing. I got into the book to realize it's about the lives of 4 kids whose mom couldn't take being a mom/wife anymore, and left the family. A bit unnerving for this likewise frazzled and frustrated mom of four.
The beginning and middle of the book were good. The ending was weak.
The beginning and middle of the book were good. The ending was weak.
This book drones on and on, and forces the reader to plod through the characters' boring and fitful lives. Events happen sporadically, which normally would be a good thing, however, in this book the events are of little interest. Things happen and then are not followed up on. The book also jumps around to the various characters too often, without delving much into their lives. We are basically getting descriptions of their daily activities and simple thoughts. The author also wrote the characters in a one-dimensional sense. This book is nothing to get excited over.
It was like reading a soap opera...easy to read and get into it but I didn't really "get" anything out of it. Was I glad I read it? eyeh... I might of enjoyed it more it the characters were more evolved..it seemed predictable.
reflective
slow-paced
One of the best books I've read in awhile. I very quickly became attached to the characters and at the end I was not ready for it to be over. It grabs you from the very beginning, quite difficult to put down at times. Fantastic writing by Veitch, nothing but praise for Without a Backward Glance.
I ended up really liking this book, but for the first half of it the characters were driving me crazy. I was annoyed and frustrated at so many of them. I kept thinking why are Laurence and Olivia the most mature people here? However, by the end this dysfunctional family (and really, which family isn't a little dysfunctional) had grown on me. I liked the feelings of resolution and new beginnings and hopefulness that it ended on (even if I still don't really like Rose, even if I think she is truly one of the most selfish characters I have come across).
On Christmas Eve, a mother of four children and a husband decides that she can no longer handle the daily struggles of raising her children. She leaves, telling her children that she is going out to get lights for the tree never to return again. Years later, the four siblings, each with families and lives of their own struggle with their mothers sudden departure and unanswered questions.
This was okay - it was easy to read and the story line was good, but the end was just kind of....anti-climatic. I'd probably give it 2.5 stars if I could. I probably wouldn't recommend it mainly because I have so many other books to recommend that are much better.