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A review by carmeno_o
The Truth of Right Now by Kara Lee Corthron
2.0
One word: Painful.
Why, you ask? It was having an excruciating identity crisis
Initial Impression:
Reading the synopsis, I was lead to believe this would be a modern tale about racism, and how it can affect the intricacies of romantic relationships. The idea of reading its influence on young love sounded even more complex and interesting.
Upon reading past a few chapters, I realised that this is not what this book was about.
Dramatic change of themes:
At the beginning, racism was a huge part of their story. Lily is a white girl who ‘falls in love with’ a new student at school who is African American.
Reading how little things she said were subconsciously racist was very interesting and prompted me to wonder if any comments (with no ill intentions) have come out of my mouth.
I was really looking forward to reading this, however after a few chapters, racism was lost within the book. Obviously I did not expect this whole book to be about it, but apart from a comment every few chapters, it was not apparent.
I continued on because I wanted to see how the story would develop. Skipping some fu(ked storylines, the ending came.
The ending. Wow. Where did that come from? I will not spoil anything but the ending was reliant on tension that racism should have created within the book— but didn’t. As a result of this, I felt terrible for what happened to a person, but felt shocked at its sudden occurrence.
Had racism not been nearly forgotten throughout the majority of the book, I would have thought the ending was good, but it lost all of its effectiveness.
It is a real shame that this book didn’t know what it wanted to be, because if it stuck to its guns throughout the duration of the story, it would have been incredibly impactful— from both Lily and Dari’s stories.
Twist:
I will not spoil anything
If I have read this, you know exactly what I am talking about. I am not talking about the diary entry, but what you know who walked in on.
What was that??
While there were a few comments made throughout the story that put that twist on my radar, when it happened, it didn’t feel well executed. What was its place in the story? To me, that curveball diminished any message this novel was trying to push.
It felt like the author always wanted to include a random twist into a story and decided to throw it in here, while disregarding the fact that it has no place in this story.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a pleasant read and I definitely enjoyed reading this book while in isolation. It was quite mind-numbing and I was curious to know how the Bobby storyline would play out. But if you want something of substance tackling racism, this is NOT the novel to read.
Personally, this book was a waste of money and I regret buying it when I could have used that money to get a well-known book that tackles these topics. I just wanted to support an author that hadn't seemed to have gotten much recognition for their work.
Why, you ask? It was having an excruciating identity crisis
Initial Impression:
Reading the synopsis, I was lead to believe this would be a modern tale about racism, and how it can affect the intricacies of romantic relationships. The idea of reading its influence on young love sounded even more complex and interesting.
Upon reading past a few chapters, I realised that this is not what this book was about.
Dramatic change of themes:
At the beginning, racism was a huge part of their story. Lily is a white girl who ‘falls in love with’ a new student at school who is African American.
Reading how little things she said were subconsciously racist was very interesting and prompted me to wonder if any comments (with no ill intentions) have come out of my mouth.
I was really looking forward to reading this, however after a few chapters, racism was lost within the book. Obviously I did not expect this whole book to be about it, but apart from a comment every few chapters, it was not apparent.
I continued on because I wanted to see how the story would develop. Skipping some fu(ked storylines, the ending came.
The ending. Wow. Where did that come from? I will not spoil anything but the ending was reliant on tension that racism should have created within the book— but didn’t. As a result of this, I felt terrible for what happened to a person, but felt shocked at its sudden occurrence.
Had racism not been nearly forgotten throughout the majority of the book, I would have thought the ending was good, but it lost all of its effectiveness.
It is a real shame that this book didn’t know what it wanted to be, because if it stuck to its guns throughout the duration of the story, it would have been incredibly impactful— from both Lily and Dari’s stories.
Twist:
I will not spoil anything
If I have read this, you know exactly what I am talking about. I am not talking about the diary entry, but what you know who walked in on.
What was that??
While there were a few comments made throughout the story that put that twist on my radar, when it happened, it didn’t feel well executed. What was its place in the story? To me, that curveball diminished any message this novel was trying to push.
It felt like the author always wanted to include a random twist into a story and decided to throw it in here, while disregarding the fact that it has no place in this story.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a pleasant read and I definitely enjoyed reading this book while in isolation. It was quite mind-numbing and I was curious to know how the Bobby storyline would play out. But if you want something of substance tackling racism, this is NOT the novel to read.
Personally, this book was a waste of money and I regret buying it when I could have used that money to get a well-known book that tackles these topics. I just wanted to support an author that hadn't seemed to have gotten much recognition for their work.