A review by coralinejones
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

3.0

“You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the ones with a screw loose, if you ask me.”

Beautifully written; a remaking of a classic, "Little Women", and yet I found myself bored for a good chunk of this novel's runtime.

That fact alone upsets me as I was pretty obsessed with what this book had going for it once I started it. I declared this read a 5 star and was preparing to purchase a physical copy for my collection. I loved learning about William and felt for him dearly. Julia was interesting to me in her college days and their romance was quite cute (coming from someone who tends to hate romance 80% of the time). I had a feeling of, "Yes, this is what reading's all about!" and had many highlights up until William hurt himself, by which I started to piece together some plots, figuring out what was to come, and then became bored.

Now, I wasn't bored because the plot was predictable to me, I was bored because there were several times the book could've just ended and it didn't. I was bored because Julia's actions didn't make much sense to me and she frustrated me time and time again. I was bored because the book kept leading me on and on and on... And on and on. It took forever to get to where I knew it was going and I barely cared by that point.

Regardless, I enjoyed the nods to Little Women. I loved discovering bits and pieces about this dysfunctional family even if they got under my skin at times. Despite not loving this book like I initially thought I would, I will miss these characters when I start my next read.