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A review by alexblackreads
A Certain October by Angela Johnson
3.0
I don't have much to say about this one. It's under 200 pages, but took me two months to read because I couldn't get into it. As such, I don't think any review coming from me is super reliable since I didn't experience it the way I'd prefer.
I kept waiting for something about this to grab me and it never did. I don't mind short books. Honestly, I kind of prefer them to longer books because I'd rather a story be told as succinctly as possible. But it felt like Johnson was cramming a 300 page story into a book half its length. It felt like so many events were skimmed over and only touched on briefly.
I never got a feel for any of the characters either. It wasn't like they were poorly crafted or annoying, it's just that I couldn't tell you a single characteristic of any of them. I finished this book two weeks back and it left no impact. At one point there's a train crash that kills people and I felt nothing.
I dunno. It's rare that I read a book that makes me feel literally nothing like this one did, but I was also in a bit of a reading slump and going through a rough time at work and reading it over the course of several months was definitely not the way to go. So I can't really put the blame on the book when it might have been hugely impacted by my mood. I'd be down to give Angela Johnson a second chance, though, because I don't have any negative thoughts on this book.
I kept waiting for something about this to grab me and it never did. I don't mind short books. Honestly, I kind of prefer them to longer books because I'd rather a story be told as succinctly as possible. But it felt like Johnson was cramming a 300 page story into a book half its length. It felt like so many events were skimmed over and only touched on briefly.
I never got a feel for any of the characters either. It wasn't like they were poorly crafted or annoying, it's just that I couldn't tell you a single characteristic of any of them. I finished this book two weeks back and it left no impact. At one point there's a train crash that kills people and I felt nothing.
I dunno. It's rare that I read a book that makes me feel literally nothing like this one did, but I was also in a bit of a reading slump and going through a rough time at work and reading it over the course of several months was definitely not the way to go. So I can't really put the blame on the book when it might have been hugely impacted by my mood. I'd be down to give Angela Johnson a second chance, though, because I don't have any negative thoughts on this book.