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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Bee is a 7th grader enjoying a summer of fun with the new neighbors, especially Max the 7th-grade boy. Until Max's little sister goes missing while they are at the lake swimming. Life turns upside down for not only Bee and her sister, Audrina, but the entire small town. Bee and Audrina are your typical sisters, the best of friends and the worst of enemies. Bee is constantly envious of her sister's charisma. This book isn't just about the disappearance of Sally the neighbor girl, it's about sisterhood and the struggles of growing up not feeling like you are good enough and in the shadow of your sibling. The book kept me intrigued, but sometimes almost felt like a memoir and not a fictitious story. I had to remind myself that these characters were made up. The end had me for sure. 4.5 stars. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
Book Review: Our Little World by Karen Winn
Our Little World is a coming of age novel about a New Jersey girl in the 1980’s. It also has elements of mystery after a neighborhood girl disappears from the lake in broad daylight.
Bee (Borka) Kocsis is about to start 7th grade in 1985 when a normal summer day at the lake turns tragic. While Bee, her sister Audrina and neighbor Max were playing in the water Max’s little sister Sally disappears. Over the next few years Bee will worry about Sally, battle with her beautiful and popular younger sister, and discover the moral failures of the adults around her. When Audrina has a health crisis that requires her older sister’s help Bee will be drawn into a complicated new relationship her sibling and discover that they both are keeping secrets.
Our Little World is full of historical detail about the life of teens and tweens and the mid-80’s. Through Bee’s eyes we see the darker side of small town and suburbia and the push/pull relationship between sisters. It is very evenly paced and never boring despite the often mundane details about the life of a teenage girl.
Overall, this will be a relatable novel for a lot of women who came of age in the 80’s, have sisters or struggled fitting in and finding their way.
4 stars
I had a bit of a hard time reading this book, but it’s not because it’s not a good book. It’s actually quite good. It’s just that I get restless easily, and this is the kind of book that’s more about the characters and their emotions than events. Actually, change that: this book is more about how a single event affects the characters, their emotions, and their relationships over the course of what seems like a lifetime to the main character and narrator, but what, in reality, is just a little over a year. Books like this take quite a bit longer for me to read than other books because they seem to sit quite still in a way, lingering in its own thoughts in a way I never do, and then I get distracted for a while before I remember to come back to the book.
So it’s not a fast read. Not at all. But it’s a worthy and good read.
I’d like to say I’ve got a good grasp on what to write for this review, but I don’t. Since it’s literary fiction and I don’t really identify with the main character in any way it’s not like I can tap into that. I guess here’s what I think I can say:
Sometimes things happen when we’re young and in our formative years that affect us and our decisions for the rest of our lives. It can skew our decisions, perspective, emotions, and relationships in innumerable ways for the rest of our lives. And Karen Winn does an amazing job in not only writing with sincerity and compassion how those ripple in the pond play out, but she doesn’t leave anyone out, either. I think her decision to set this story in a sleepy little town and to concentrate the story even further on one small suburban neighborhood was very wise, because it allowed her to concentrate all her energy and talent on ensuring that same sincerity and compassion was extended to every character involved in the story. Some authors might have felt compelled to add more to the story to make it a little funnier or a little more dramatic or to add more romance, but Winn made a decision to stick with what she had and it paid off. To add anything more to this story would have taken away from it.
My only sincere complaint was the epilogue. I didn’t think it was needed, at all. I would’ve rather the book been left alone, as it was, sans epilogue. If you go to read this book, maybe try reading the book and stopping at the end and then waiting a while before you read the epilogue. Sit with the story for a while before you go read the epilogue. Savor the story for what it is before reading it. I recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
So it’s not a fast read. Not at all. But it’s a worthy and good read.
I’d like to say I’ve got a good grasp on what to write for this review, but I don’t. Since it’s literary fiction and I don’t really identify with the main character in any way it’s not like I can tap into that. I guess here’s what I think I can say:
Sometimes things happen when we’re young and in our formative years that affect us and our decisions for the rest of our lives. It can skew our decisions, perspective, emotions, and relationships in innumerable ways for the rest of our lives. And Karen Winn does an amazing job in not only writing with sincerity and compassion how those ripple in the pond play out, but she doesn’t leave anyone out, either. I think her decision to set this story in a sleepy little town and to concentrate the story even further on one small suburban neighborhood was very wise, because it allowed her to concentrate all her energy and talent on ensuring that same sincerity and compassion was extended to every character involved in the story. Some authors might have felt compelled to add more to the story to make it a little funnier or a little more dramatic or to add more romance, but Winn made a decision to stick with what she had and it paid off. To add anything more to this story would have taken away from it.
My only sincere complaint was the epilogue. I didn’t think it was needed, at all. I would’ve rather the book been left alone, as it was, sans epilogue. If you go to read this book, maybe try reading the book and stopping at the end and then waiting a while before you read the epilogue. Sit with the story for a while before you go read the epilogue. Savor the story for what it is before reading it. I recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
This book centers the story of disappearance of 4 year old Sally at the start of Lake season in the 80s. The story is told in perspective of 14 year old, Bee who was neighbors with Sally and was there when she went missing.
This book is about coming of age for Bee and her relationship with her sister. The story is well told and so heartbreaking.
This book is about coming of age for Bee and her relationship with her sister. The story is well told and so heartbreaking.
It’s a normal summer day for Bee and the neighborhood kids. When Sally goes missing at the lake however, the town is turned upside down. With everything that happened, Bee’s relationship with her sister Audrina begins to change. While the two used to be attached at the hip, Bee is now being included with the popular girls and leaving everyone else behind. As she continue to grow up, their rift grows further, even if both wish they would grow closer.
So first of all this town was based off Mendham NJ. We have friends that live there so that was a fun aspect of the book! This book brought me right back to my teenage years. Talk about the low self esteem of your young years, the pull of being included by the “cool crowd,” and the hope of just fitting in, with both your family and at school. This book pulled me in right away, and my heart really felt for Bee and Audrina as the book went on.
mysterious
medium-paced
Slower paced, had major deja vu like I had read this exact book before. But still pulled at my heart strings, I can relate to some of the emotions that the main character felt because of my little sister.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a slow but often deep and moving book about two sisters, the complicated relationship between them and the effect of a missing child had on them. We know early on how things will end but it was still a disturbing look at the secrets in families and in neighborhoods.
I typically love debut novels feeling that the author is giving us their absolute best to lure us into their world so we will want more in their future writings. But Our Little World sadly disappointed me miserably. I felt the story was very disconnected jumping from the story of the missing Sally to the relationship between Audrina and Bee and the issues surrounding them and their parents. I never felt like Bee's voice was a pre- teen/teenage voice and the interactions between the sisters and their school friends was so standard that it lacked any interest for me. I kept reading in hopes that somehow the author might pull all the pieces together and provide the punch that I felt was missing but that didn't happen and only with the Epilogue to we get the answer to the big question but it still was anti-climactic. Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC.