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A review by elemmire
The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb
2.0
This book was really good at using a lot of words to say almost nothing.
Overview:
A woman in a mid-life crisis tries to find herself by spending time away. She meets new people and falls in love. She eats food, tells stories that seem to add very little to the plot, and everyone likes her sooo much.
To the things that I found irritating.
1. The book is difficult to follow and remember as to how much time has gone by. It seems like she meets someone and, in the same day, is nearly best friends with them despite saying that she wanted to keep to herself. Every relations ship builds seems to be instant and trusting, pretty unknown in most people's worlds. Everything happened quickly, but also seemed to take forever because of unneeded details and side stories.
2. The main character is being painted as this takes no-nonsense, get it done, woman. In reality, she has a savior complex. There is a tense situation at a dinner party with the implication of racism. I say implication because not one character has the guts to just say "you are being racist". Instead, we get the classic "what do you really mean" from the angry white woman. And that is honestly what usually happens, but instead of consoling and feeling bad for the person being discriminated against, it's all about how the white woman feels. It does not matter if a black person is accustomed to feeling put out, discriminated against, or downright hated. You do not fawn over the white savior who did nearly nothing. No matter how many times it happens it is terrible.
3. The fish boil. Salt is not enough when seasoning food. Throw some goddamn Tony's in there! Some garlic? Some onion?
4. It felt like a long string of self-centered character tropes. Not only is the main character only thinking of herself, but all the characters around are also just soooo interested in her (with the one exception of when the focus is Alice). It felt very much like a Hallmark movie.
5. It's supposed to be a haunting, 2 things were creepy and everything else sucked. Having dreams that you are seeing a ghost is pretty mild. There is never any kind of threat to it. Hauntings don't have to be scary, but they should be more than simply existing. It's not much of a plot.
6. The ending. It could have ended well if she stopped at the part where she says she's ready. That was a perfect line to end on. At this point, we know the boyfriend is the angel of death (or something like that) and he is there to take her away. But no, she just had to go into the whole afterlife. Leave that stuff to the imagination. That line would have had me crying if it stopped there.
7. OMG, season your food.
Overview:
A woman in a mid-life crisis tries to find herself by spending time away. She meets new people and falls in love. She eats food, tells stories that seem to add very little to the plot, and everyone likes her sooo much.
To the things that I found irritating.
1. The book is difficult to follow and remember as to how much time has gone by. It seems like she meets someone and, in the same day, is nearly best friends with them despite saying that she wanted to keep to herself. Every relations ship builds seems to be instant and trusting, pretty unknown in most people's worlds. Everything happened quickly, but also seemed to take forever because of unneeded details and side stories.
2. The main character is being painted as this takes no-nonsense, get it done, woman. In reality, she has a savior complex. There is a tense situation at a dinner party with the implication of racism. I say implication because not one character has the guts to just say "you are being racist". Instead, we get the classic "what do you really mean" from the angry white woman. And that is honestly what usually happens, but instead of consoling and feeling bad for the person being discriminated against, it's all about how the white woman feels. It does not matter if a black person is accustomed to feeling put out, discriminated against, or downright hated. You do not fawn over the white savior who did nearly nothing. No matter how many times it happens it is terrible.
3. The fish boil. Salt is not enough when seasoning food. Throw some goddamn Tony's in there! Some garlic? Some onion?
4. It felt like a long string of self-centered character tropes. Not only is the main character only thinking of herself, but all the characters around are also just soooo interested in her (with the one exception of when the focus is Alice). It felt very much like a Hallmark movie.
5. It's supposed to be a haunting, 2 things were creepy and everything else sucked. Having dreams that you are seeing a ghost is pretty mild. There is never any kind of threat to it. Hauntings don't have to be scary, but they should be more than simply existing. It's not much of a plot.
6. The ending. It could have ended well if she stopped at the part where she says she's ready. That was a perfect line to end on. At this point, we know the boyfriend is the angel of death (or something like that) and he is there to take her away. But no, she just had to go into the whole afterlife. Leave that stuff to the imagination. That line would have had me crying if it stopped there.
7. OMG, season your food.