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A review by geraldine
Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
realizing that the moravian church body came from the hussites explained everything about this book. if this doesn't make sense to you know that you are free
i wish i didn't know anything about jan hus, if only i myself was free as well
i'm leaving this unrated here but i think an honest rating would be a 2.75, not quite a 3 but rounding down to a 2 seems cruel.
the author clearly did a lot of historical research for this book but a lot of it ends up feeling like flat set dressing, especially the parts about segregation and racism in winston-salem in the 60s. i'm not against the protagonist being an ignorant white woman who doesn't think of herself as racist (she has black friends!) but doesn't notice clear discrimination in front of her until it's pointed out, i think that's unfortunately realistic and an interesting character move. but then the resolution is that... the city desegregates lunch counters and she doesn't really change her behavior all that much. and lottie and nelson feel like they're only there to give her Words of Wisdom or Pointed Advice which is unfortunate, especially nelson.
i also didn't love that like... why did she need to get a 90s high school movie style makeover. this girl is out digging in the garden all the time it makes sense for her hair to be up!!!
and additionally i feel like i wanted the book to end like 5 pages earlier, the infodump of dorothea's last letter feels clunky to me! i did think the reveal of who dorothea was in love with originally was subtlety implied earlier (and well!) but it really felt like sledgehammering it in at the end. did like that it does end open ended though.
i liked that everyone is called a single name except fay marian is always fay marian. this was funny to me and i genuinely think it worked. i also liked harrie and felt like she worked as a kid character, it can be hard to make a precocious child without making them seem to precious or twee and i felt like she had a solid balance. also harrie calling ej "eej" was such a funny way of spelling that but i think it worked too!! and as mentioned before i do think ej was a compelling character, just kind of floating through her life, this worked also.
really read two north carolina books back to back. this woman also north carolinas
i'm leaving this unrated here but i think an honest rating would be a 2.75, not quite a 3 but rounding down to a 2 seems cruel.
the author clearly did a lot of historical research for this book but a lot of it ends up feeling like flat set dressing, especially the parts about segregation and racism in winston-salem in the 60s. i'm not against the protagonist being an ignorant white woman who doesn't think of herself as racist (she has black friends!) but doesn't notice clear discrimination in front of her until it's pointed out, i think that's unfortunately realistic and an interesting character move. but then the resolution is that... the city desegregates lunch counters and she doesn't really change her behavior all that much. and lottie and nelson feel like they're only there to give her Words of Wisdom or Pointed Advice which is unfortunate, especially nelson.
i also didn't love that like... why did she need to get a 90s high school movie style makeover. this girl is out digging in the garden all the time it makes sense for her hair to be up!!!
and additionally i feel like i wanted the book to end like 5 pages earlier, the infodump of dorothea's last letter feels clunky to me! i did think the reveal of who dorothea was in love with originally was subtlety implied earlier (and well!) but it really felt like sledgehammering it in at the end. did like that it does end open ended though.
i liked that everyone is called a single name except fay marian is always fay marian. this was funny to me and i genuinely think it worked. i also liked harrie and felt like she worked as a kid character, it can be hard to make a precocious child without making them seem to precious or twee and i felt like she had a solid balance. also harrie calling ej "eej" was such a funny way of spelling that but i think it worked too!! and as mentioned before i do think ej was a compelling character, just kind of floating through her life, this worked also.
really read two north carolina books back to back. this woman also north carolinas