Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Great or Nothing

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Great or Nothing by Jessica Spotswood, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Joy McCullough

4 reviews

daryn's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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ninascozydayreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What if Little Women was set in the 1940s and the sisters were all doing something for the war effort? A historical fiction retelling of a beloved classic. That sounds good right? Well, it is! And that is exactly what Great or Nothing is about. And I know I didn’t really make it sound exciting there but here me out!

The story starts sometime after the Big Fight (where Amy burns Jo’s manuscript) and after Beth has died (both events happen in the original as well, so these shouldn’t be spoilers). After this, the three remaining sisters have gone their separate ways. Jo has moved out, and is working in a factory on the assembly line making parts needed for planes. She has seemingly given up writing.

Amy, if you’d ask her sisters, is headed to art school in Canada. However, the art school was a ruse, and against her family’s wishes (and the law), she has boarded a boat to England to help out as a nurse with the Red Cross. In doing so, she has taken on a different name, as Amy herself was too young to go. Soon she finds herself in London, where she comes face to face with an old friend…

Meg has stayed home. Her fiancé is fighting in Europe, and Meg is working as a teacher at the local school. She misses her sisters. She misses her fiancé. She spends time with their mother, being the only sibling left at the nest.

And Beth? Beth watches all of their stories unfold, feeling sorrow that she’s no longer part of them but also happiness at seeing her sisters grow and move on.

The novel is written by four different authors, and each author takes on their own sister. Though this can sometimes cause a disruption in voices and writing style, where the different writing style can be off-putting or throwing you off, I didn’t notice any of that. The writings were at least similar enough for me to not notice, with of course the exception of Beth, whose chapters are written in verse. But that makes sense, since she’s no longer actually part of the unfolding story, but, just like the reader, a mere spectator.

Having multiple POVs can also be tricky. There always might be that one character that you are simply not interested in. I know I had that with A Song of Ice and Fire, for example. However, with this one, all three stories were so different and yet all so interesting. All three hooks of the story were compelling, yet it wasn’t overwhelming. I loved Amy’s adventures in London, I loved seeing her come to terms and make peace with the Big Fight. And at the same time I also loved Meg’s life, though that was objectively slightly less action-packed. But Meg was written to help out in her own way, by keeping morale up in the community. I loved how the book highlighted different ways of existing and living in the war, and that there was no bad way to go through it, whether you were out helping at the front or stayed home or worked on the assembly line, all was just as good and worthy of praise.

There weren’t many dynamics between the sister, mostly because they spent most of the book in completely different parts of the world. But you could still feel their love for one another, their regrets as well, and it was lovely seeing them each come into their own person and go from there, the message really being that sometimes space is necessary.

All in all, I absolutely loved this book. I am always a sucker for retellings and for historical fiction, so this hardly could have been a miss. The setting was vivid, the writing was really good and enchanting and really engaging; it swept me right along. It’s mostly character driven, because their bond as sisters as well as their own growth is at the front and center of it all, but there are some very interesting plot hooks. Especially Amy’s perspective had me on the edge of my seat sometimes (mostly with the romance) and Jo’s had me squealing throughout for that exact same reason.

Definitely give this a go if you:

- Like Little Women

- Love historical fictions

- Like Sapphic fiction (cause there’s a bit of that as well!! Not gonna say who but… I think you can guess who ;))

- Like a character driven story

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belanna_l's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad 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

5.0

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bookishaddictions's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

I chose this ARC since I enjoyed Alcott’s Little Women. This reimagining of LW brings the characters to life in a unique way- they are now navigating life during WW2. Jo, still our lovable tomboy, finds herself going to work in the factories building military equipment. Amy enlists in the Red Cross, while Meg stays home and tries to better her local community. Each mourns Beth, as she only has a voice in this novel via poems. The characters got to be portrayed as deeper and more relatable in this version of the story, and the setting made the story a little more easy to follow. With four perspectives and four authors, each character clearly has their own attitudes and beliefs. The March girls are still strong, independent, and bold. I loved getting to follow the characters along for the journey, especially since we miss most of Amy’s in the original Little Women. The authors bring the passion, anger, and desperation of the sisters to life in a way that Alcott did not. If you love historical fiction and woman-centered stories, this one is worth your time!

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