Scan barcode
raraeaves's review against another edition
4.5
a more complicated book than the film or nostalgia might perhaps admit.
marinapasovski's review against another edition
5.0
This book nearly ripped my heart out. It made me cry twice in public. It clearly shows how much it can mess you up to lack love from the few people who should give it unconditionally. But also how you can choose and create your own family, how the love from friends and lovers can heal or at least mend some of the pain.
This book has all the ingredients that I love to read about: the american south, the past, female friendships, war, and dysfunctional families. Just amazing.
This book has all the ingredients that I love to read about: the american south, the past, female friendships, war, and dysfunctional families. Just amazing.
jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition
4.0
Who doesn't want to be a part of the Ya-ya sisterhood, flaws & all, after reading this book? I couldn't help but love these women.
belanna2's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
Yet another book where the movie doesn't do it justice.... the issues and conflicts from the book are darker and just glossed over and made to be lighthearted issues in the film.
clementinemac's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Quintessentially Southern: delightful with deeply upsetting undertones
simonenoelle1126's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Classism, and Racism
llama_lord's review against another edition
3.0
This was one of my favorite books in high school. I decided to re-read it (in audio book form) after re-watching the movie recently and still finding enjoyable. But oh man did the book fall short this time around.
First, a few words on the audio book version which was read by Judith Ivey. While I appreciated her commitment to giving each character their own unique voice, overall I found the reader's voice just kind of irritating. The parts when Vivi was a child, where the reader combined Vivi's thick Louisiana accent with a high-pitched child voice, were honestly hard to sit through. Overall I would not recommend this specifically as an audio book.
The few parts of this book that stuck out in my mind over the years and made me remember it as an awesome book (specifically the Ya-Ya's trip to Atlanta to see the premiere of GWTW and Vivi's experience in Catholic boarding school) were the only parts that I actually enjoyed this time around. Everything else seemed mediocre. Part of the reason I probably liked this book as a teenager was because everything the Ya-Ya's do is something a 15 year old would think is cool. Frankly through an adult's eyes a lot of the Ya-Ya's antics are kind of pathetic. For example, at one point Sidda tells the story of how her mother and the Ya-Yas would repeatedly break into her high school dances in order to set up a bar for the students and also be the center of attention. Sidda tells the story as if it's this funny example of how wild and endearing the Ya-Ya's are, but all I could think about is how pathetic it is for a group of middle aged women to be trying to relive their glory days at their childrens' high school dance.
As is usually the case with any historical fiction that flips between the historical setting and a "modern" setting, I infinitely preferred the flashbacks to Vivi's youth over any of the portions with modern day Sidda. Sidda's sections are not only extremely boring (consisting pretty much entirely of her walking, eating, or petting her dog) but they also don't add anything to the story. Sidda doesn't actually learn anything about her mother from the Ya-Ya's scrapbook, she just flips from photo to photo going "Oh wow I wonder what the story is behind this one". The reader is there for the flashbacks, but not Sidda. At least in the film the Ya-Ya's are with Sidda the entire time telling her the story behind everything in the scrapbook.
Also, nothing that we learn about Vivi's childhood or adolescence through the flashbacks and scrapbook excuses her or makes it understandable for her to be a shitty, abusive mom. Sorry Rebecca Wells, but Vivi taking her child on an elephant ride through a shopping center parking lot doesn't excuse the time she was high out of her mind and whipping her children with a belt buckle, or abandoning her children for days with no mention of where she was going and no warning that she was even leaving, or generally being an alcoholic who is only interested in the attention you get from being pregnant but with no interest in actually being responsible for the lives of four helpless children who depend on her.
First, a few words on the audio book version which was read by Judith Ivey. While I appreciated her commitment to giving each character their own unique voice, overall I found the reader's voice just kind of irritating. The parts when Vivi was a child, where the reader combined Vivi's thick Louisiana accent with a high-pitched child voice, were honestly hard to sit through. Overall I would not recommend this specifically as an audio book.
The few parts of this book that stuck out in my mind over the years and made me remember it as an awesome book (specifically the Ya-Ya's trip to Atlanta to see the premiere of GWTW and Vivi's experience in Catholic boarding school) were the only parts that I actually enjoyed this time around. Everything else seemed mediocre. Part of the reason I probably liked this book as a teenager was because everything the Ya-Ya's do is something a 15 year old would think is cool. Frankly through an adult's eyes a lot of the Ya-Ya's antics are kind of pathetic. For example, at one point Sidda tells the story of how her mother and the Ya-Yas would repeatedly break into her high school dances in order to set up a bar for the students and also be the center of attention. Sidda tells the story as if it's this funny example of how wild and endearing the Ya-Ya's are, but all I could think about is how pathetic it is for a group of middle aged women to be trying to relive their glory days at their childrens' high school dance.
As is usually the case with any historical fiction that flips between the historical setting and a "modern" setting, I infinitely preferred the flashbacks to Vivi's youth over any of the portions with modern day Sidda. Sidda's sections are not only extremely boring (consisting pretty much entirely of her walking, eating, or petting her dog) but they also don't add anything to the story. Sidda doesn't actually learn anything about her mother from the Ya-Ya's scrapbook, she just flips from photo to photo going "Oh wow I wonder what the story is behind this one". The reader is there for the flashbacks, but not Sidda. At least in the film the Ya-Ya's are with Sidda the entire time telling her the story behind everything in the scrapbook.
Also, nothing that we learn about Vivi's childhood or adolescence through the flashbacks and scrapbook excuses her or makes it understandable for her to be a shitty, abusive mom. Sorry Rebecca Wells, but Vivi taking her child on an elephant ride through a shopping center parking lot doesn't excuse the time she was high out of her mind and whipping her children with a belt buckle, or abandoning her children for days with no mention of where she was going and no warning that she was even leaving, or generally being an alcoholic who is only interested in the attention you get from being pregnant but with no interest in actually being responsible for the lives of four helpless children who depend on her.
skirmishgirl's review against another edition
5.0
I did not want to like this book. I started reading is as a joke, a funny, fluffy book about women in the South.
I thought I would power through it with ease, and then move on, laughing all the way.
Oh, and how wrong I was.
I've read a good number of books in my life, and many of those have been "Southern" novels. Virtually all of them are
tinged with some level of sadness, of despair. I don't know if that comes from a glorious Lost Cause feeling that all
Southerners seem to carry with them, or if it's just a genre people became adept at writing within.
What I do know is that it takes a special kind of book to make me sob. Tear up? Yeah, I do that all the time while I'm reading.
If I like a character and they get killed off, I might shed a tear or two. But to make me sob...that's something special
and different, and I can count the number of books that have done that to me on one hand. This book is one of those.
Other reviews call it "rollicking" and fun. It is those things, but always shadowed by something darker, something deeper,
something more difficult to get through. Something verging on personal.
I laughed, more than once while reading it. But I was also moved, surprisingly. And that is the mark of a good book.
I thought I would power through it with ease, and then move on, laughing all the way.
Oh, and how wrong I was.
I've read a good number of books in my life, and many of those have been "Southern" novels. Virtually all of them are
tinged with some level of sadness, of despair. I don't know if that comes from a glorious Lost Cause feeling that all
Southerners seem to carry with them, or if it's just a genre people became adept at writing within.
What I do know is that it takes a special kind of book to make me sob. Tear up? Yeah, I do that all the time while I'm reading.
If I like a character and they get killed off, I might shed a tear or two. But to make me sob...that's something special
and different, and I can count the number of books that have done that to me on one hand. This book is one of those.
Other reviews call it "rollicking" and fun. It is those things, but always shadowed by something darker, something deeper,
something more difficult to get through. Something verging on personal.
I laughed, more than once while reading it. But I was also moved, surprisingly. And that is the mark of a good book.