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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
so contrived and strange! an interesting idea, but doesn't deliver as promised.
medium-paced
I wanted to like this more than I did. Little Bee is a Nigerian refugee seeking asylum in Britain and her story was fascinating and the issues raised of great interest to me. The beginning was so strong but the book just kept going downhill for me. I really despised the Lawrence character and didn't see what purpose he served in the plot. Bee's voice was so strong that alternating the chapters with superficial Sarah didn't help any. In the long run, I didn't believe any of the characters except for Bee. What a moving story - too bad it wasn't told in a more effective way. I should be giving this lower than 3 stars, but the first 50 pages were so good it balanced out to 3 for me.
I always find it interesting when a male author writes in the voice of a female. It's especially interesting in this book because the author, Chris Cleave, writes for two females and one of them is an African girl while he is a white male. Although, i think he did a great job representing what it feels like for Little bee living in a world that doesn't seem to want her.
This book dealt with very strong themes and shows the reader the realness of what goes on in the world. Learning of what happened to Little bee's sister was very hard to deal with and it was amazing that Little bee was able to pick herself up and survive, while also having a slight sense of humor.
I mostly felt like Lawrence was a throw away character. He didn't serve much of a purpose and he took away from the fact that this story felt like it should be two women helping each other by connecting through their past and developing their futures.
all in all, this was a good book but not the "life-changing" that the cover made it seem.
This book dealt with very strong themes and shows the reader the realness of what goes on in the world. Learning of what happened to Little bee's sister was very hard to deal with and it was amazing that Little bee was able to pick herself up and survive, while also having a slight sense of humor.
I mostly felt like Lawrence was a throw away character. He didn't serve much of a purpose and he took away from the fact that this story felt like it should be two women helping each other by connecting through their past and developing their futures.
all in all, this was a good book but not the "life-changing" that the cover made it seem.
I can see why no-one wants to tell you to much about this story before you read it. So I shan't either. All you need to know is that it is heartbreaking, but it has lighter moments too. I think Chris Cleave does inhabit his characters well - he's extremely good at bringing very different voices to life.
Loved it. If you haven't read it (and I know I'm late to the party with this one) then you should give it a go.
Loved it. If you haven't read it (and I know I'm late to the party with this one) then you should give it a go.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
This probably isn't a great review, but it was the only way I could attempt to describe this book to my friend, so here you go.
It's like...when you're about to fall and you know it. You feel nervous and excited and it's like the world stops in that one second so you can feel this weirdly good, unnameable pain and you hate that you love it because it hurts and maybe you shouldn't enjoy it but you do because it's so raw and beautiful and yet you're mad because it's life and there's no real absolution of the beautiful sorrow so that all you can do is wait for the world to resume its normalcy while you try to comprehend what you feel.
It's like...when you're about to fall and you know it. You feel nervous and excited and it's like the world stops in that one second so you can feel this weirdly good, unnameable pain and you hate that you love it because it hurts and maybe you shouldn't enjoy it but you do because it's so raw and beautiful and yet you're mad because it's life and there's no real absolution of the beautiful sorrow so that all you can do is wait for the world to resume its normalcy while you try to comprehend what you feel.
I just hated the book. I read it a while ago and it still makes me angry that I wasted my time reading it.
The author could have chosen every single topic under the Sun but a book about a black woman is just not it for a white man... and it shows...
The author could have chosen every single topic under the Sun but a book about a black woman is just not it for a white man... and it shows...