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redbaumbooks 's review for:
The Face on the Milk Carton
by Caroline B. Cooney
I hadn't heard of this book until recently. It's always a nice surprise to find an old book to experience. It gives a chance to read ideas that were before their time, or may not be around anymore. This book was definitely an experience. I have a love-hate relationship with it. The writing style can't be described as anything less than awful. The first few chapters seem to have an obsession with milk, mentioning it every couple of sentences-and how every character feels about it. It's really not important that we know how much Sarah-Charlotte enjoys a glass of milk with her cookies. The word 'gold' (or other forms of it, ie. golden) are also constantly mentioned. It's as if the author only had that one 'G' page from the dictionary, with the rest of the letters nowhere to be found. It gets tiring. It's repetitive.
The characters were unrealistic. No two teenagers are the same, but the way Janie (the main character) handles the situation she is in is far more purposeful drama than realistic teen girl. I found it very difficult to connect with her, and as the book progressed I found myself pushing her away instead of being engaged with her narrative.
The book takes almost 200 pages to tell a story that could be done well in far less than that-and by the end of it you're almost wishing it would just end. However, once the book does end it's left on a cliffhanger. To give credit to Cooney where it is due, this is the only thing that made me want to continue reading the series. Investing the time I did into the book to not get a satisfying conclusion was not something I was happy with. The critic in me wanted to see if Cooney could deliver the sort of story that would make its mark on history as a true classic, rather than just a story resented by teenagers that had to study it in school.
Overall, the book was slow, unrealistic and almost gave me a headache making it to the end (which is a problem for such a short book.) Excellent idea, bad execution.
Edit: despite this review, I continued to read the other books in the series. The problems mentioned here seem to be fixed, or at least get better. The characters progress and by the end I find myself actually wanting to continue reading. I would give the overall series 3 stars. I will review each book individually at a later date.
The characters were unrealistic. No two teenagers are the same, but the way Janie (the main character) handles the situation she is in is far more purposeful drama than realistic teen girl. I found it very difficult to connect with her, and as the book progressed I found myself pushing her away instead of being engaged with her narrative.
The book takes almost 200 pages to tell a story that could be done well in far less than that-and by the end of it you're almost wishing it would just end. However, once the book does end it's left on a cliffhanger. To give credit to Cooney where it is due, this is the only thing that made me want to continue reading the series. Investing the time I did into the book to not get a satisfying conclusion was not something I was happy with. The critic in me wanted to see if Cooney could deliver the sort of story that would make its mark on history as a true classic, rather than just a story resented by teenagers that had to study it in school.
Overall, the book was slow, unrealistic and almost gave me a headache making it to the end (which is a problem for such a short book.) Excellent idea, bad execution.
Edit: despite this review, I continued to read the other books in the series. The problems mentioned here seem to be fixed, or at least get better. The characters progress and by the end I find myself actually wanting to continue reading. I would give the overall series 3 stars. I will review each book individually at a later date.