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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An interesting character study that will appeal to someone who genuinely loved Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Not only is it a well written, sometimes disturbing and ugly, exploration of a family experiencing the Civil War, but it gives depth to the March marriage, attributing real human faults to both parents that aren't there in the original.
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to like this book because 1. I loved the book Little Women as a kids and 2. I've liked most of what Geraldine Brooks has written. However, I did not like this book. I wished she had spent more time on him meeting Marmee and living with his girls becfore the war etc...The war parts itself were strange. I liked the character of Grace but it felt so contrived that he met her later in the hospital. I wanted more of his friendship with Emerson and Throeau. I liked that he was flawed and wasn't the perfect husband or father but I felt like she broke him a bit too much. I always understood that he was wounded during a battle not sent away to some run down plantation place. I just thought that whole instance was strange. I do appreciate that she used Alcott's father's writings and based March on him. I don't think the book turned out very well even though it had all the makings of being great.
Difficult to read slave scenes, read as very colonialist & didn’t sit well/hold my interest. Disappointed as I read along with Little Women and had waited years.
A fantastic companion piece to Little Women. Harrowing at times, but very well written.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was the 2006 Pulitzer winner and I really knew nothing about it before picking it up, but I loved her characterization of the March family. Marmee in particular was endearing and complex without being a saint like how she is portrayed in the film. I also read this almost entirely on my new Brooklyn-Harlem commute and it was so lovely.