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beverly_h 's review for:
Little Disasters
by Sarah Vaughan
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This book was not one bit riveting and took me an age to finish.
It is my first one-star review on Goodreads, which is a pretty amazing feat given that I am an avid reader. I hesitate to give one-star reviews to authors, yet this time I just can't resist.
I was very angry upon finishing this book. The amount of graphic descriptions that detail the protagonist's imaginings of how she is going to kill each of her three children is absurd and gross. One description, yes, maybe; I couldn't reconcile why there had to be countless full-on descriptions of the bludgeoning of children to death. The discourse on maternal angst dragged on and on for 422 pages - this, that could have been written and closed on in 150.
What I was reminded of constantly as I read this novel was Margaret Atwood's sentiment in 'A Handmaid's Tale' that, sometimes, bored people get sick to make their lives interesting. This is truly the rut I felt the protagonist's murderous musings were borne of. A non-working, well-off mother-of-three, 'Jess', the protagonist, I found to be a hateful character - not relatable in the slightest. She is described to the reader as having an 'anxious' temperament (why - no reason is given), and shows zero humility or gratitude for the privileged life she leads as a stay-at-home parent with three beautiful children to care for.
I was rooting for the husband's emotional escapades with The One That Got Away, Charlotte, to turn physical, as I felt that his having an affair would have somewhat salvaged this flop of a novel. (As some other random misfortune befalling the insufferable Jess would have.) Alas, no such titillating saving grace occurred. As for Jess's character development from beginning to end, it amounts to her admitting that, yes, she may have been neglectful by leaving her children alone for 20 minutes to run to the shop, BUT she's been no more neglectful than Charlotte (!!!).
Not even my librarian liked this novel, admitting it was 'not nice' (quote) and that it should never have been published. I hold out hope that the other two Sarah Vaughan ones she recommended to me - Anatomy of a Scandal and Revelation - will be better.
It is my first one-star review on Goodreads, which is a pretty amazing feat given that I am an avid reader. I hesitate to give one-star reviews to authors, yet this time I just can't resist.
I was very angry upon finishing this book. The amount of graphic descriptions that detail the protagonist's imaginings of how she is going to kill each of her three children is absurd and gross. One description, yes, maybe; I couldn't reconcile why there had to be countless full-on descriptions of the bludgeoning of children to death. The discourse on maternal angst dragged on and on for 422 pages - this, that could have been written and closed on in 150.
What I was reminded of constantly as I read this novel was Margaret Atwood's sentiment in 'A Handmaid's Tale' that, sometimes, bored people get sick to make their lives interesting. This is truly the rut I felt the protagonist's murderous musings were borne of. A non-working, well-off mother-of-three, 'Jess', the protagonist, I found to be a hateful character - not relatable in the slightest. She is described to the reader as having an 'anxious' temperament (why - no reason is given), and shows zero humility or gratitude for the privileged life she leads as a stay-at-home parent with three beautiful children to care for.
I was rooting for the husband's emotional escapades with The One That Got Away, Charlotte, to turn physical, as I felt that his having an affair would have somewhat salvaged this flop of a novel. (As some other random misfortune befalling the insufferable Jess would have.) Alas, no such titillating saving grace occurred. As for Jess's character development from beginning to end, it amounts to her admitting that, yes, she may have been neglectful by leaving her children alone for 20 minutes to run to the shop, BUT she's been no more neglectful than Charlotte (!!!).
Not even my librarian liked this novel, admitting it was 'not nice' (quote) and that it should never have been published. I hold out hope that the other two Sarah Vaughan ones she recommended to me - Anatomy of a Scandal and Revelation - will be better.