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A review by lanidon
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
3.0
The dramatic irony stretches pretty thin here... I can't tell whether the author genuinely thought the end was some big reveal, but it seemed pretty obvious from the start. The length of the conversation explaining every single interaction in new context was exhausting and dropped the entire book down a star for me
The other less than stellar part was the mc. I liked her in some moments but in others she would get so ridiculously manic pixie dream girl that I'd have to take a break. Feeding your dog takeout food every night is not cute and quirky, it's borderline animal abuse. She tends to use people all the while acting like she's incapable of asking for help. She doesn't see others for the fully formed complex souls they are, but only how they fit in her life. She spends weeks with a guy and never once asks what he does for work....
The face blindness aspect was genuinely compelling. The concept of how it would impact an artist's view of the world is fascinating, but I simply don't feel like this character is an artist, at any point, before or after her prognosis. She doesn't have vision or imagination, she is simply copying exactly what her mother's style once was. When faced with the inability to do so, she doesn't stop and think of something new, some way to capture how her perspective has changed; she simply tries to find a way to fake it. She never even feels passionate about art itself, she only has drive to prove she can accomplish the act of painting. She doesn't want to create, she doesn't have something she wants to say with her art, she only ever desires 1) monetary gain 2) praise
Overall this book is fun, it's sweet, it has very charming moments, but it is in no way perfectly executed or completely satisfying
The other less than stellar part was the mc. I liked her in some moments but in others she would get so ridiculously manic pixie dream girl that I'd have to take a break. Feeding your dog takeout food every night is not cute and quirky, it's borderline animal abuse. She tends to use people all the while acting like she's incapable of asking for help. She doesn't see others for the fully formed complex souls they are, but only how they fit in her life. She spends weeks with a guy and never once asks what he does for work....
The face blindness aspect was genuinely compelling. The concept of how it would impact an artist's view of the world is fascinating, but I simply don't feel like this character is an artist, at any point, before or after her prognosis. She doesn't have vision or imagination, she is simply copying exactly what her mother's style once was. When faced with the inability to do so, she doesn't stop and think of something new, some way to capture how her perspective has changed; she simply tries to find a way to fake it. She never even feels passionate about art itself, she only has drive to prove she can accomplish the act of painting. She doesn't want to create, she doesn't have something she wants to say with her art, she only ever desires 1) monetary gain 2) praise
Overall this book is fun, it's sweet, it has very charming moments, but it is in no way perfectly executed or completely satisfying