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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
I expected more.. 'cuase everybody were talking about this book.. I didn't like it very much.
The movie is so different and soooo better.
The movie is so different and soooo better.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A messy yet tender story of love and loss, grief and survival. P.S. I Love You is a love letter to us all about the strength of carrying on under the weight of loss, especially with the help of friends and family.
Full Book Review
"Nobody's life is filled with perfect little moments. And if it were, they wouldn't be perfect little moments. They would just be normal. How would you ever know happiness if you never experience downs?"
After the death of her husband Gerry, 30-year-old Holly is reeling and drowning in her loss and devastation. And then the letters arrive from Gerry...the letters for each of the ten months following his death, instructing her on how to move on little by little. With the help and support of her friends and family, Holly strives to hold on to Gerry, while at the same time still trying to live and love.
My Thoughts... 3.5 Stars
First of all, this sweet book is SO much better than the movie! Why they Americanized this Irish story of love and loss is beyond me. What the movie probably gained in American viewers, it lost in location, culture, and warmth. But I digress...
Cecelia Ahern beautifully and painfully portrays loss and grief in this novel. It's heartfelt and messy, tender and full of anguish. It's not a story of a quick rebound from loss to new love, it's not a story of processing grief in record time, it's not even a story of moving on. What Ahern does is show how grief and loss will still live in you, will still hold you and suffocate you, but will also become a part of a new you that is survivable. Ahern really shows how Holly has to find a way to carry all her love and loss with her while still finding a way to live.
Some of the characters were a bit annoying, but sometimes that helped to show how people not fully suffering your same loss can get frustrated when you don't move on in a timely fashion, or they don't know how to support you. Overall, there were surprising moments of tenderness between characters who were all flawed, but were trying (and failing, and trying again).
The flow of the book could have benefited from an edit to shorten it, but it did allow for lots of backstory and secondary character development. Also, the Daniel/Holly tension throughout the book was resolved in an unexpected way that would have been disappointing if not for the very last scene. I thought Ahern tied it up well.
Full Book Review
"Nobody's life is filled with perfect little moments. And if it were, they wouldn't be perfect little moments. They would just be normal. How would you ever know happiness if you never experience downs?"
Synopsis:
After the death of her husband Gerry, 30-year-old Holly is reeling and drowning in her loss and devastation. And then the letters arrive from Gerry...the letters for each of the ten months following his death, instructing her on how to move on little by little. With the help and support of her friends and family, Holly strives to hold on to Gerry, while at the same time still trying to live and love.
My Thoughts... 3.5 Stars
First of all, this sweet book is SO much better than the movie! Why they Americanized this Irish story of love and loss is beyond me. What the movie probably gained in American viewers, it lost in location, culture, and warmth. But I digress...
Cecelia Ahern beautifully and painfully portrays loss and grief in this novel. It's heartfelt and messy, tender and full of anguish. It's not a story of a quick rebound from loss to new love, it's not a story of processing grief in record time, it's not even a story of moving on. What Ahern does is show how grief and loss will still live in you, will still hold you and suffocate you, but will also become a part of a new you that is survivable. Ahern really shows how Holly has to find a way to carry all her love and loss with her while still finding a way to live.
Some of the characters were a bit annoying, but sometimes that helped to show how people not fully suffering your same loss can get frustrated when you don't move on in a timely fashion, or they don't know how to support you. Overall, there were surprising moments of tenderness between characters who were all flawed, but were trying (and failing, and trying again).
The flow of the book could have benefited from an edit to shorten it, but it did allow for lots of backstory and secondary character development. Also, the Daniel/Holly tension throughout the book was resolved in an unexpected way that would have been disappointing if not for the very last scene. I thought Ahern tied it up well.
I couldn't put this book down. All the characters made it so captivating. I hope I will be able to read her other books.
I was expecting more from this one. Mostly because I had seen bits and pieces of the movie in it was so much more interesting than the actual book.
medium-paced
This story starts out with Holly grieving the death of her husband. Gerry left little messages for her to read each month over the next year, each one containing instructions for her. I laughed, if I were a crier I would have cried.
I love that it's set in Ireland (cool Irish slang!) and that the ending is NOT what you expect... keeps it a bit more realistic.
Holly is so lucky to have such strong support from family and friends, not everyone has that.
I love that it's set in Ireland (cool Irish slang!) and that the ending is NOT what you expect... keeps it a bit more realistic.
Holly is so lucky to have such strong support from family and friends, not everyone has that.
"P.S I Love You" was okay. It was far from a literary masterpiece, but I didn't think it was toilet paper either.
I expected the letters from Holly's deceased husband to be a lot more... Well, a lot more. We are told time and time again that Holly practically worshipped this man because he was just perfect, but the supposedly life-changing letters that Gerry leaves her are more like post-it notes reminding her to get milk after work. One note tells her to buy a bedside lamp, another tells her to buy a jazzy outfit to partake in karaoke... I'm sorry, but what's romantic about that? One could argue that Gerry wouldn't have been capable of writing verbose, lovey-dovey epistles since he was, you know, dying from a brain tumour, but if your entire plot is based on romantic missives then I think I'm allowed to expect something more significant. The only part of Gerry himself included in this story is his notes, yet we learn nothing of any importance about him. He was a plot point rather than a fleshed-out person.
That leads me to my next point. Don't read this if you're expecting something which will play on your mind for days after you've finished it. I'd say all of the characters are forgettable. I'm not quite sure what purpose half of the characters served, actually, other than filling 500-odd pages worth of book. Really, what did all four of Holly's siblings add to the story? Why are Gerry's parents dropped into the story at an inconvenient time for Holly, only for nothing to be made of it? Who gives a shit about Cindy and her marvellous plastic tits when she is never mentioned again once "the girls" come back from their beach holiday? There was very little in the way of character development, which meant that I didn't really get invested in any of the characters' lives. I wasn't bothered when Holly finally got a job, or when Sharon got pregnant with her first baby, or when Ciara moved back to Australia with the boyfriend she thought she'd lost. I wasn't rooting for anybody, and that included Holly.
Speaking of Holly's new job, since when has anybody gone into an interview for a job they're totally unqualified for in an industry they know nothing about, made an utter show of themselves, and then been offered the job purely because the interviewer likes them? That isn't realistic: it's hokey nonsense! On second thoughts, I have realised that I've just described British parliamentary elections, so I shall digress about the authenticity behind that...
Ahern also seemed to assert that the way to get over your dead husband is to... go on multiple benders with your mates. I hail from a long line of alcoholics, and I can tell you from over twenty years of observing them that drowning your sorrows in alcohol is a very poor way indeed to cope with the death of a loved one! When I think about it, I didn't learn anything new about love or loss. There was nothing rousing or inspiriting about "P.S I Love You". To be honest, it was rather superficial, which I guess is fine if you just want something to read to kill time. Sometimes it read like extravagant griping, and if I wanted to subject myself to that, I'd visit the comment section on my local Facebook Marketplace.
I got through this book in about three nights. It was very easy to read as Ahern's writing style is rather simplistic. There's no flowery language here. In fact, I'd say it's perhaps a little too simplistic for an adult novel detailing such a heavy topic. A lot of the dialogue was protracted and superfluous, and I did find myself wondering on more than one occasion why Holly and her friends were always rolling about laughing when nothing funny had been said in my opinion. Moreover, their "hilarious" antics made me feel like a puritanical, stick-waving old codger, when I am in fact younger than them! However, I believe I'm correct in saying that Ahern was only 21 when she wrote "P.S I Love You" so I suppose I can forgive all of that, although I do have to wonder if her presumably well-connected father had anything to do with getting this half-arsed book published!
Despite the things I've complained about earlier, I honestly didn't hate it. There was something charming about it that I can't quite put my finger on. It prompted me to cuddle my cats and my fiancé (in that order) a little longer before we went to sleep. "P.S I Love You" wasn't so bad that it would put me off reading anything else Ahern wrote after this, although I doubt I'll read the sequel. However, I think this book would have benefitted from a good editor who could have cut out the twaddle as it does read more like a first or second draft than a completed novel. I love the premise, but I feel that it could have been done better by someone older and wiser who has actually experienced losing their soul mate.
I expected the letters from Holly's deceased husband to be a lot more... Well, a lot more. We are told time and time again that Holly practically worshipped this man because he was just perfect, but the supposedly life-changing letters that Gerry leaves her are more like post-it notes reminding her to get milk after work. One note tells her to buy a bedside lamp, another tells her to buy a jazzy outfit to partake in karaoke... I'm sorry, but what's romantic about that? One could argue that Gerry wouldn't have been capable of writing verbose, lovey-dovey epistles since he was, you know, dying from a brain tumour, but if your entire plot is based on romantic missives then I think I'm allowed to expect something more significant. The only part of Gerry himself included in this story is his notes, yet we learn nothing of any importance about him. He was a plot point rather than a fleshed-out person.
That leads me to my next point. Don't read this if you're expecting something which will play on your mind for days after you've finished it. I'd say all of the characters are forgettable. I'm not quite sure what purpose half of the characters served, actually, other than filling 500-odd pages worth of book. Really, what did all four of Holly's siblings add to the story? Why are Gerry's parents dropped into the story at an inconvenient time for Holly, only for nothing to be made of it? Who gives a shit about Cindy and her marvellous plastic tits when she is never mentioned again once "the girls" come back from their beach holiday? There was very little in the way of character development, which meant that I didn't really get invested in any of the characters' lives. I wasn't bothered when Holly finally got a job, or when Sharon got pregnant with her first baby, or when Ciara moved back to Australia with the boyfriend she thought she'd lost. I wasn't rooting for anybody, and that included Holly.
Speaking of Holly's new job, since when has anybody gone into an interview for a job they're totally unqualified for in an industry they know nothing about, made an utter show of themselves, and then been offered the job purely because the interviewer likes them? That isn't realistic: it's hokey nonsense! On second thoughts, I have realised that I've just described British parliamentary elections, so I shall digress about the authenticity behind that...
Ahern also seemed to assert that the way to get over your dead husband is to... go on multiple benders with your mates. I hail from a long line of alcoholics, and I can tell you from over twenty years of observing them that drowning your sorrows in alcohol is a very poor way indeed to cope with the death of a loved one! When I think about it, I didn't learn anything new about love or loss. There was nothing rousing or inspiriting about "P.S I Love You". To be honest, it was rather superficial, which I guess is fine if you just want something to read to kill time. Sometimes it read like extravagant griping, and if I wanted to subject myself to that, I'd visit the comment section on my local Facebook Marketplace.
I got through this book in about three nights. It was very easy to read as Ahern's writing style is rather simplistic. There's no flowery language here. In fact, I'd say it's perhaps a little too simplistic for an adult novel detailing such a heavy topic. A lot of the dialogue was protracted and superfluous, and I did find myself wondering on more than one occasion why Holly and her friends were always rolling about laughing when nothing funny had been said in my opinion. Moreover, their "hilarious" antics made me feel like a puritanical, stick-waving old codger, when I am in fact younger than them! However, I believe I'm correct in saying that Ahern was only 21 when she wrote "P.S I Love You" so I suppose I can forgive all of that, although I do have to wonder if her presumably well-connected father had anything to do with getting this half-arsed book published!
Despite the things I've complained about earlier, I honestly didn't hate it. There was something charming about it that I can't quite put my finger on. It prompted me to cuddle my cats and my fiancé (in that order) a little longer before we went to sleep. "P.S I Love You" wasn't so bad that it would put me off reading anything else Ahern wrote after this, although I doubt I'll read the sequel. However, I think this book would have benefitted from a good editor who could have cut out the twaddle as it does read more like a first or second draft than a completed novel. I love the premise, but I feel that it could have been done better by someone older and wiser who has actually experienced losing their soul mate.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes