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marie_kreuter's review against another edition
2.0
I really expected and wanted to like this book. According to the description, it’s exactly the kind of story I love: one about the intimacy of adolescence and the inevitable dissolution of the intense friendships one makes during this time. And while the author is obviously skilled—it is beautifully written—the story is told almost primarily in exposition, and by the least interesting character in the book. There’s a line I love on page 145: “But our friendship was, at the same time, like a city you hadn’t visited in a long time, where you know the streets by heart but the shops and restaurants have changed, so you can find your way from the church to the town square, no problem, but you don’t know where to get ice cream or a decent sandwich.” Lovely, right? Sadly, i feel it also characterizes the book as a whole: We’re given the skeleton, maybe some muscles, tendons, an internal organ or two, of these two girls’ lives, including some present-action scenes (the first half of the book is much more scene-heavy than the second), but as the story continues, it drops almost exclusively into exposition, with the less interesting character explaining (often second-hand!) and musing over the dramatic unraveling of her first best friend’s life. And because of this lack of present action and closeness to the story, we’re left without a beating heart, without a visage, so that I understand that this story exists, but it’s hard to care, especially about the narrator, who I felt I knew so little about by the end of the story. And if I know so little about her, why would her heartbreak matter to me?
I vacillated between two and three stars on this one, because I want to acknowledge the beauty of Messud’s writing, but I landed on two. Because, man, was I disappointed by this story.
I vacillated between two and three stars on this one, because I want to acknowledge the beauty of Messud’s writing, but I landed on two. Because, man, was I disappointed by this story.
carrielion143's review against another edition
2.0
This book has a match on the cover and that is fitting for how it felt. Started with a hot spark, then just burned out to dull ashes. Blah.....
wendoxford's review against another edition
3.0
A novel of female friendship through childhood and adolescence, from joy to pain. It is largely pain-filled writing both in the intensity of the bonding and the unravelling. Some of the essence of teenage years is captured in an understated way describing groups of students at school as well as the domestic settings.
I found it curiously compelling but in a very different way from Messud's other novels. Her other works I found more haunting & more uncomfortable. I wonder if it is the "voice". This reads in the vein of "emotion recollected in tranquillity" and certainly feels like a narrator looking back from a completely different stage of life, not the two years later recollections that introduce the story.
I found it curiously compelling but in a very different way from Messud's other novels. Her other works I found more haunting & more uncomfortable. I wonder if it is the "voice". This reads in the vein of "emotion recollected in tranquillity" and certainly feels like a narrator looking back from a completely different stage of life, not the two years later recollections that introduce the story.
kikpres's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
syren1532's review against another edition
2.0
Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school and do everything together but as they grow older they grow further apart and choose different paths. Julia is academic, on the speech team at school and destined for college while Cassie prefers to party and have fun. During part one of the book I got the impression that something awful had happened to Cassie and Julia felt responsible. This wasn't the case and the book is more a story of friendship and how things change as young people grow up and I feel the blurb was slightly misleading.
neens's review against another edition
5.0
i can’t imagine anyone who’s ever been a 7th grade girl disliking this book. i loved it.
barkingcave's review against another edition
3.0
This was a great book in many ways but it left some loose ends and things unresolved that made it unsatisfying. I listened to this as an audible and went back a couple of times to re listen to the last part to see if my mind had wandered and these plot points had been addressed... but no, it didn't appear that they were.
perry417's review against another edition
4.0
I have really fallen out of the reading habit. Too many things going on with my family, too many things going on with the world. I tend to veg out in front of a silly iphone app rather than read. I'm NINE books behind my 2018 goal! So this book took me a long time to get through, but not because it wasn't excellent.
It's a beautiful, melancholy story about two girls and their divergent paths. They are inseparable as children, as close as sisters, and there's a very detailed description of one perfect summer day when they are on the cusp of middle school -- still young enough to be imaginative and adventurous, but with more serious issues on the horizon. The book then beautifully describes their friendship for the next several years -- with boys and grades and parties and experimentation and expectations and parents. I was reminded of my own mixed up friendships in high school, and the paths that the friendships between my teenage daughter and her friends have taken.
There were some truly beautiful phrases in this book, which added to the aching if that makes sense. I don't mean to say that the book was depressing, but it was beautifully written and captured the time period so well.
It's a beautiful, melancholy story about two girls and their divergent paths. They are inseparable as children, as close as sisters, and there's a very detailed description of one perfect summer day when they are on the cusp of middle school -- still young enough to be imaginative and adventurous, but with more serious issues on the horizon. The book then beautifully describes their friendship for the next several years -- with boys and grades and parties and experimentation and expectations and parents. I was reminded of my own mixed up friendships in high school, and the paths that the friendships between my teenage daughter and her friends have taken.
There were some truly beautiful phrases in this book, which added to the aching if that makes sense. I don't mean to say that the book was depressing, but it was beautifully written and captured the time period so well.