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mayenk's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
When you get "stuck" in your life; the book starring rural/small town black US southerners.
rainbowbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
If you read this in an African American retelling of Great Gatsby, let that idea go. It is not.
If you heard it has allusions to Gatsby, let that idea go. Otherwise, you will spend your time analyzing and knit picking, instead of immersing yourself in this family saga.
I’m sure this book may deserve more than three stars, but having the specter of Fitzgerald hovering over my shoulder as I read affected my appreciation of this book.
If you heard it has allusions to Gatsby, let that idea go. Otherwise, you will spend your time analyzing and knit picking, instead of immersing yourself in this family saga.
I’m sure this book may deserve more than three stars, but having the specter of Fitzgerald hovering over my shoulder as I read affected my appreciation of this book.
librariansrule's review against another edition
3.0
such a great plot and interesting story with so much narration and passive back story that the novel lost its oomph. wish this were a novella; the impact would be powerful.
alitrevisan105's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
mfraise05's review against another edition
4.0
This is a hefty read but worth it, I think. I was not aware of any of The Great Gatsby tie-in when I picked this so I did not go into it trying to make connections to GG which is fortunate for me because I am not particularly fond of The Great Gatsby. That being said, this book is well done on its own, completely separate from that reference. It spends a great deal of time in the characters' thoughts, feelings, and memories, more so than it spends in the present it seems. Which I think is a point the book makes about life as you grow older, that nothing is separated from the past. Everyone is living under the weight of what they dreamed their life would be compared to the real disappointment of where they ended up. The men are all stupid and the women sad and angry to have to settle for them lol. I don't know why I find that funny but I do. The smartest man in the book is JJ and even he's bearing the burden of a traumatic childhood, trying to find home in his memories.
Not a huge deal but big enough for me to make note of it, there are typos, which to me, is disrespectful in a professionally printed book - disrespectful on the editor's part. There aren't many but there are some missing quotation marks, incorrect tenses and even a missing word here and there. Otherwise, great book!
Not a huge deal but big enough for me to make note of it, there are typos, which to me, is disrespectful in a professionally printed book - disrespectful on the editor's part. There aren't many but there are some missing quotation marks, incorrect tenses and even a missing word here and there. Otherwise, great book!
dimples0508's review against another edition
2.0
Very meh, couldn't get into it. Didn't seem consistent with what the book sleeve said.
samstillreading's review against another edition
3.0
Quite a bit has been said about No One is Coming to Save Us being an African-American version of The Great Gatsby. The first thing you need to do when reading this book in my opinion is to forget all that. Yes, there’s a big house and a guy who calls himself Jay. But this book stands very well on its own merits without trying to label the characters as Daisy, Nick or Jay. It’s a story about family, about facing up to the demons of the past and present and trying to move on.
I’ll admit that I found the start of the book quite confusing, likely because the people in the first couple of chapters didn’t match up to the blurb. Who was Marcus? Did Sylvia have another son not mentioned on the back cover? Why is he in gaol? When is JJ coming into the story more? The best way I found to overcome this was just to keep reading (and if that involved lying on the floor when the air conditioner was broken, that’s okay). It all came together for a story that is heartbreaking yet fascinating.
Stephanie Powell Watts has chosen a setting that isn’t commonly explored in the books I’ve been reading lately. Pinewood is a small town in North Carolina that’s dying. The furniture factories are going out of business as work is outsourced overseas. People are poor and the whole town has an air of desperation. It’s only the older townspeople like Sylvia and her husband Don who remember the town as a busier place, one that was less friendly to the African-American people. Sylvia has done her best to bring up her family and bring them out of poverty. On the material side, she’s done well. Daughter Ava has a college education and works at the local bank. Her son Devon – well, that’s a different story. But what Sylvia can’t achieve is happiness for her whole family. Ava’s married to Henry, who is underworked and bored. Sylvia knows that Henry isn’t good enough for Ava, but when former boyfriend JJ returns, she’s not sure whether she wants that for Ava either. Sylvia’s own husband Don is making a fool of himself with a young girl. It seems that none of her family is truly content.
Enjoyed is not the right word, but getting to look inside each of the character’s heads and feeling their pain and struggle was a great way to tell this story. I felt it brought me closer to the characters as a result and I really grew to love Sylvia. The way she describes her past and her worries for her family was sweet, right down to how she tries to meddle (with the best intentions) in a stranger’s life. I even grew to like the hapless Don. JJ was the only character I couldn’t quite connect with, perhaps due to his mysteriousness regarding his past. He seems to think that Ava can solve all his problems. Possibly the Ava of twenty years ago could have, but she’s grown past JJ. Like the other female characters, she’s strong, but just needs time to realise it.
I liked No One is Coming to Save Us. Perhaps without the expectations of The Great Gatsby theme, I would have liked it more. Would I read another book by Stephanie Powell Watts? Yes, but I’m steering clear of any comparisons!
Thank you to Penguin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
I’ll admit that I found the start of the book quite confusing, likely because the people in the first couple of chapters didn’t match up to the blurb. Who was Marcus? Did Sylvia have another son not mentioned on the back cover? Why is he in gaol? When is JJ coming into the story more? The best way I found to overcome this was just to keep reading (and if that involved lying on the floor when the air conditioner was broken, that’s okay). It all came together for a story that is heartbreaking yet fascinating.
Stephanie Powell Watts has chosen a setting that isn’t commonly explored in the books I’ve been reading lately. Pinewood is a small town in North Carolina that’s dying. The furniture factories are going out of business as work is outsourced overseas. People are poor and the whole town has an air of desperation. It’s only the older townspeople like Sylvia and her husband Don who remember the town as a busier place, one that was less friendly to the African-American people. Sylvia has done her best to bring up her family and bring them out of poverty. On the material side, she’s done well. Daughter Ava has a college education and works at the local bank. Her son Devon – well, that’s a different story. But what Sylvia can’t achieve is happiness for her whole family. Ava’s married to Henry, who is underworked and bored. Sylvia knows that Henry isn’t good enough for Ava, but when former boyfriend JJ returns, she’s not sure whether she wants that for Ava either. Sylvia’s own husband Don is making a fool of himself with a young girl. It seems that none of her family is truly content.
Enjoyed is not the right word, but getting to look inside each of the character’s heads and feeling their pain and struggle was a great way to tell this story. I felt it brought me closer to the characters as a result and I really grew to love Sylvia. The way she describes her past and her worries for her family was sweet, right down to how she tries to meddle (with the best intentions) in a stranger’s life. I even grew to like the hapless Don. JJ was the only character I couldn’t quite connect with, perhaps due to his mysteriousness regarding his past. He seems to think that Ava can solve all his problems. Possibly the Ava of twenty years ago could have, but she’s grown past JJ. Like the other female characters, she’s strong, but just needs time to realise it.
I liked No One is Coming to Save Us. Perhaps without the expectations of The Great Gatsby theme, I would have liked it more. Would I read another book by Stephanie Powell Watts? Yes, but I’m steering clear of any comparisons!
Thank you to Penguin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
laila4343's review against another edition
4.0
I loved spending time with these characters, especially Sylvia. Don't try to force any Gatsby comparisons, just enjoy this for what it is: a rich, compassionately told family saga about hopes, regrets, determined survival.
inesheiwat's review against another edition
3.0
4.5
Read this for a class in school, and liked it more than I anticipated! I haven't read The Great Gatsby, but I found this reimagining to include more original content and ideas than I thought. I am always apprehensive of reading retellings or reimaginings when I haven't read the source material, but this one was truly inventive.
The writing is definitely a big factor in my love of this novel.
Read this for a class in school, and liked it more than I anticipated! I haven't read The Great Gatsby, but I found this reimagining to include more original content and ideas than I thought. I am always apprehensive of reading retellings or reimaginings when I haven't read the source material, but this one was truly inventive.
The writing is definitely a big factor in my love of this novel.
catcervone's review against another edition
2.0
I picked up an ARC copy of this book at a thrift store and was really excited to read it. Sadly, I was disappointed, though I don’t know how much, if any, of it changed from the ARC to the final published edition, so I can’t speak to that.
I couldn’t figure out what the book was actually about, other than a bunch of sad and disappointing people who seemed like they were having a rough time. There was no conflict, little plot. The characters weren’t likable, and often the storyline and descriptions of characters lacked or glossed over details, making everything more confusing. Long paragraphs of description, unneeded at times and unbroken by paragraph breaks, made it hard to read. These were interspersed with long periods of dialogue with not enough description; it was like it was one or the other. It also took me forever to figure out what time period this book is set in, and many details seem like they don’t match the time.
I feel like the potential is there for this book to be great, but the execution just isn’t present. For that reason, I’d read another book by this author, but wouldn’t recommend this book.
I couldn’t figure out what the book was actually about, other than a bunch of sad and disappointing people who seemed like they were having a rough time. There was no conflict, little plot. The characters weren’t likable, and often the storyline and descriptions of characters lacked or glossed over details, making everything more confusing. Long paragraphs of description, unneeded at times and unbroken by paragraph breaks, made it hard to read. These were interspersed with long periods of dialogue with not enough description; it was like it was one or the other. It also took me forever to figure out what time period this book is set in, and many details seem like they don’t match the time.
I feel like the potential is there for this book to be great, but the execution just isn’t present. For that reason, I’d read another book by this author, but wouldn’t recommend this book.