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3.18 AVERAGE
3.18 AVERAGE
3.5 stars. I'm still not 100% on how I feel about this book. It felt somewhat tedious, but wasn't badly written. In fact it was not to complicated, easy to read, but still storytelling-like. I think it was more the subject matter I found hard to connect with.
I think it is an interesting read. It was creative and engaging and didn't have the "Gone Girl Effect" that many books about kidnapping have. Wish there was more resolving but I think it was what the author was after.
Received from GoodReads Giveaways!
3 mini vans out of 5
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for this ARC. I’m finally getting to reading it now, so here are my honest thoughts:
While the middle of this book was quite good, exploring the many stages of grief and the frustrations of teenagehood, this story could’ve been done in under 300 pages and been twice as enjoyable. OR incorporated more POVs to limit redundancy.
The strained mother-daughter and husband-wife relationships were at times agonizing in all the wrong ways. Two-thirds in, I’d had enough of the worry wart mother who lashes out on everyone else rather than getting the help she needs.
This book touches on some very profound themes, and in the end I’m glad I was exposed to them. I did enjoy the daughter Meredith’s POV a lot and related to her on many levels. I really loved Evan’s story arc. If it had been Meredith and Colleen Bellow’s POVs, I may have been able to rate this higher. I feel like Lisa’s mom was a far more intriguing and complex character than Claire.
Conclusion: Lukewarm at best.
3 mini vans out of 5
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for this ARC. I’m finally getting to reading it now, so here are my honest thoughts:
While the middle of this book was quite good, exploring the many stages of grief and the frustrations of teenagehood, this story could’ve been done in under 300 pages and been twice as enjoyable. OR incorporated more POVs to limit redundancy.
The strained mother-daughter and husband-wife relationships were at times agonizing in all the wrong ways. Two-thirds in, I’d had enough of the worry wart mother who lashes out on everyone else rather than getting the help she needs.
This book touches on some very profound themes, and in the end I’m glad I was exposed to them. I did enjoy the daughter Meredith’s POV a lot and related to her on many levels. I really loved Evan’s story arc. If it had been Meredith and Colleen Bellow’s POVs, I may have been able to rate this higher. I feel like Lisa’s mom was a far more intriguing and complex character than Claire.
Conclusion: Lukewarm at best.
I picked this up because I wanted to read the lowest-rated books on my Goodreads To-Read list. The Fall of Lisa Bellow sits at around the 3.0 mark. That's honestly where I'm putting it. It wasn't bad by any means, just not extraordinary.
This examines the trauma of a suburban family after their daughter Meredith is at a hold-up in a local sandwich shop where one of her classmates gets abducted. Lisa Bellow is the popular girl in school, and she has been mean to Meredith on several occasions. Meredith has complicated feelings about being the last person to see her alive, along with some kind of survivor's guilt.
There were chapters where Meredith pretends that Lisa is okay, and eventually she imagines what would have happened if she would've been abducted as well. These were enjoyable, but I would've liked some commentary on this dream. It seemed so separate from the rest of the story. The rest of the family wasn't communicating. Nothing got resolved. Not that it needed to, but the story didn't seem like it had an ending.
This examines the trauma of a suburban family after their daughter Meredith is at a hold-up in a local sandwich shop where one of her classmates gets abducted. Lisa Bellow is the popular girl in school, and she has been mean to Meredith on several occasions. Meredith has complicated feelings about being the last person to see her alive, along with some kind of survivor's guilt.
There were chapters where Meredith pretends that Lisa is okay, and eventually she imagines what would have happened if she would've been abducted as well. These were enjoyable, but I would've liked some commentary on this dream. It seemed so separate from the rest of the story. The rest of the family wasn't communicating. Nothing got resolved. Not that it needed to, but the story didn't seem like it had an ending.
To paraphrase the book, some children get taken and some children get left behind. This is the story of the those left behind. Contrary to what the title of this book may lead you to believe, this book is not inherently about Queen Bee eighth grader Lisa Bellow, but rather about h0 hum average girl Meredith Oliver who happens to be left behind on the floor of the Deli Barn sandwich shop the day Lisa Bellow is kidnapped at gunpoint. This not a plot driven book, but rather a familial character study on the Oliver family and the effects Lisa's kidnapping and Meredith not being kidnapped have on them.
We have the most insight to Meredith's perspective and that of her mother Claire. I thought the author did a masterful job of getting into the mind and thoughts of a typical eighth grader. Claire's perspective was interesting as well - her struggles with wanting and trying to keep her children safe and realizing that ultimately she has little control. Some readers may view Claire as a pessimist, but I would classify her more as a realist. (And the scene from the dentist office where Claire dishes out a little payback - well I can't say I completely disagree with her!)
How Meredith processes being the one left behind affects her relationship with her parents, former superstar athlete older brother trying to recover from a serious eye injury, her friends, Lisa's friends, Lisa's mother and even Lisa herself.
Very well-drawn interesting characters! The end left me wanting more answers for these people I had become invested in, but overall well worth the read!
Thank you NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Susan Perabo for providing an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book will be released March 14, 2017.
We have the most insight to Meredith's perspective and that of her mother Claire. I thought the author did a masterful job of getting into the mind and thoughts of a typical eighth grader. Claire's perspective was interesting as well - her struggles with wanting and trying to keep her children safe and realizing that ultimately she has little control. Some readers may view Claire as a pessimist, but I would classify her more as a realist. (And the scene from the dentist office where Claire dishes out a little payback - well I can't say I completely disagree with her!)
How Meredith processes being the one left behind affects her relationship with her parents, former superstar athlete older brother trying to recover from a serious eye injury, her friends, Lisa's friends, Lisa's mother and even Lisa herself.
Very well-drawn interesting characters! The end left me wanting more answers for these people I had become invested in, but overall well worth the read!
Thank you NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Susan Perabo for providing an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book will be released March 14, 2017.
The Fall of Lisa Bellow sounded intriguing, but it failed to grip me. I felt as though it took far too long to get going, and had little interest in completing it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this title. This was a very good book and it kept my interest riveted for a few days. There was lots of "what? Wait, is this real?" "Oh, maybe not." "Oh, or maybe it is." That kind of book where you have to keep going. That said, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending myself although I think it was a reasonable choice for an ending. I think the author nailed a lot of what is challenging about teenage girls though (have one myself). Overall, it's worth your time.
It's taken me a while to finish this novel - partly because of the busy time of the year and also because of the subject.
This has been a mixed bag.
The good parts: good writing, very realistic, intimate, raw, and relatable.
The not-so-great parts: nothing much happens after the kidnapping; as the blurb conveys, this is mostly about how a family deals with traumatic events in their life. It's almost entirely a character driven novel, with two points of view: one of the thirteen-year old's Meredith and the other one of her mum's, Claire, who's a dentist.
I must admit I've found this novel depressing. But I admire Perabo's abilities to portrait an everyday, middle-class American family, with all their imperfections and struggles.
This is a good character driven novel, albeit I didn't love it.
I've received this novel via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publishers, Simon & Schuster, for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
This has been a mixed bag.
The good parts: good writing, very realistic, intimate, raw, and relatable.
The not-so-great parts: nothing much happens after the kidnapping; as the blurb conveys, this is mostly about how a family deals with traumatic events in their life. It's almost entirely a character driven novel, with two points of view: one of the thirteen-year old's Meredith and the other one of her mum's, Claire, who's a dentist.
I must admit I've found this novel depressing. But I admire Perabo's abilities to portrait an everyday, middle-class American family, with all their imperfections and struggles.
This is a good character driven novel, albeit I didn't love it.
I've received this novel via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publishers, Simon & Schuster, for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
I felt as though the summary of this book was completely misleading. This is not at all a thriller and is barely a mystery. The book focuses on the girl that was not abducted and is so utterly absorbed in this girl and the girl's mother that the missing girl barely seems to be cared about. The characters are very self-absorbed and details about them, particularly the mother, that have absolutely no bearing on the plot are constantly included. I grew to rather dislike the characters and I did not really feel compelled by them or their story at all. Now the girl that was abducted, her I would have liked more from but the author failed in this regard. In addition, I found the writing to be bland and I can say the same for the story overall.
Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley & publisher in exchange for an honest review. (They may regret this.) Any and all quotes were taken from an advanced edition subject to change in the final edition.
Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley & publisher in exchange for an honest review. (They may regret this.) Any and all quotes were taken from an advanced edition subject to change in the final edition.
Meredith Oliver is on the floor at the Deli Barn, next to Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in school, and there's a gun pointed at them both. The gunman tells Lisa to come with him, and he drives away, with Lisa.
The author did what I thought would be impossible: she wrote an immensely captivating story from the point-of-view of the person that got away.
There are lots of other small but equally powerful storylines in this book---a baseball-proficient brother who is hit in the eye with a ball and goes partially blind, a mom who isn't comfortable with her role or her life, Lisa's friends who oddly become Meredith's friends---and it makes for a wonderful novel.
The author did what I thought would be impossible: she wrote an immensely captivating story from the point-of-view of the person that got away.
There are lots of other small but equally powerful storylines in this book---a baseball-proficient brother who is hit in the eye with a ball and goes partially blind, a mom who isn't comfortable with her role or her life, Lisa's friends who oddly become Meredith's friends---and it makes for a wonderful novel.