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A review by maggiemaggio
Me and Mr. Booker by Cory Taylor
3.0
I'm having a difficult time deciding if I liked this book more than I thought I would or less than I thought I would. I decided to read it after reading a review in Shelf Awareness and while I enjoyed the story, I wouldn't necessarily say I liked the book.
The story focuses on 16-year-old Martha (although she's called by her name so infrequently in the book it doesn't really matter) and the really screwed up adults that inhabit her life. There's her mentally ill father, the mother who enables her father by not being able to break away from him, and her mother's immature friends, Mr. and Mrs. Booker included. Martha and Mr. Booker start in on an affair and the story is about what happens to them.
I read somewhere that this is a look inside the nymphet mind of Lolita. After reading this I can't really agree. Yes the story was told from Martha's point of view, but she wasn't really a deep character. And maybe that's just how teenagers are? But I wasn't that type of teenager (see over analyzing, can't shut brain off character in [b:Prep|9844|Prep|Curtis Sittenfeld|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320501476s/9844.jpg|2317177] for an idea of how my brain worked at that age).
The book was surprisingly quick to read, I went into it thinking it would be one of those books that dragged along, but I read it in two days of subway commutes. It's a fine book, it's not really funny, it's not really sad, although I guess it is quite sad, I just found the characters too over the top to relate to to really feel any emotion towards them. I can't say I would necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't not recommend it.
The story focuses on 16-year-old Martha (although she's called by her name so infrequently in the book it doesn't really matter) and the really screwed up adults that inhabit her life. There's her mentally ill father, the mother who enables her father by not being able to break away from him, and her mother's immature friends, Mr. and Mrs. Booker included. Martha and Mr. Booker start in on an affair and the story is about what happens to them.
I read somewhere that this is a look inside the nymphet mind of Lolita. After reading this I can't really agree. Yes the story was told from Martha's point of view, but she wasn't really a deep character. And maybe that's just how teenagers are? But I wasn't that type of teenager (see over analyzing, can't shut brain off character in [b:Prep|9844|Prep|Curtis Sittenfeld|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320501476s/9844.jpg|2317177] for an idea of how my brain worked at that age).
The book was surprisingly quick to read, I went into it thinking it would be one of those books that dragged along, but I read it in two days of subway commutes. It's a fine book, it's not really funny, it's not really sad, although I guess it is quite sad, I just found the characters too over the top to relate to to really feel any emotion towards them. I can't say I would necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't not recommend it.