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sharondblk 's review for:
This Train Is Being Held
by Ismée Williams
A couple of influential readers recommended this book, so I requested it on NetGalley.
I almost DNFd this one at 33 percent. It's well written and each word - sentence - chapter is quite lovely, but I found I just didn't care.
I think this book is trying to address Big Issues, such as mental health, money and class, race, but it brushes very lightly over the top of these. In some cases it seems to fall into stereotypes. Maybe I'm just naive, of maybe every single person in New York hates everyone from the Dominican republic. Or maybe its not because Alex is brown, maybe it's because he's a big loud youth, carrying on big and loud with his big loud friends.
There were other things that irritated me - like the untranslated Spanish. I mean, I could figure it out in context, but that's not really how I like to read books. Mainly though, it irritated me that they kept on bumping into each other on the train. New York is a big city and the subway runs every two to ten minutes (yes, I googled it). The chances of two people repeatedly being in the same subway car - and not on the way to work or school, but at random times on the weekend, seems slim to me.
But maybe maybe real problem is that the two main characters' love seemed very slight. And they did that romance novel thing were the female lead has just one friend.
So, with all these criticisms, why three stars? Well, this is YA, and I'm not the target audience. Back when I was less wrinkly and cynical I probably would have liked this more. Also, on the weekend I just sat on the couch and read, so it was sort of pleasant, if annoying.
As always, I thank NetGalley and the publishers for the e-Arc, in exchange for an honest review.
I almost DNFd this one at 33 percent. It's well written and each word - sentence - chapter is quite lovely, but I found I just didn't care.
I think this book is trying to address Big Issues, such as mental health, money and class, race, but it brushes very lightly over the top of these. In some cases it seems to fall into stereotypes. Maybe I'm just naive, of maybe every single person in New York hates everyone from the Dominican republic. Or maybe its not because Alex is brown, maybe it's because he's a big loud youth, carrying on big and loud with his big loud friends.
There were other things that irritated me - like the untranslated Spanish. I mean, I could figure it out in context, but that's not really how I like to read books. Mainly though, it irritated me that they kept on bumping into each other on the train. New York is a big city and the subway runs every two to ten minutes (yes, I googled it). The chances of two people repeatedly being in the same subway car - and not on the way to work or school, but at random times on the weekend, seems slim to me.
But maybe maybe real problem is that the two main characters' love seemed very slight. And they did that romance novel thing were the female lead has just one friend.
So, with all these criticisms, why three stars? Well, this is YA, and I'm not the target audience. Back when I was less wrinkly and cynical I probably would have liked this more. Also, on the weekend I just sat on the couch and read, so it was sort of pleasant, if annoying.
As always, I thank NetGalley and the publishers for the e-Arc, in exchange for an honest review.