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A review by catsbooksmilktea
One Two Three by Laurie Frankel
2.0
Listened to this on audiobook, narrated by Emma Galvin as Mab, Jesse Vilinsky as Monday, and Rebecca Soler as Mirabel.
You know that quote, "The one unforgivable sin is to be boring"? Unfortunately, this novel is gravely guilty of that.
Very little actually happens in this book, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing - I can enjoy a good character-driven novel if it's written well - but One Two Three spends so much time trying to impress you with how dramatic and dire every little thing is. Over and over and over again. The narrative flow is to have a chapter for each triplet in order - one, two, three, then repeat - but for some reason this often resulted in each sister retelling what the previous sister just narrated in her own words. This is especially painful when listening/reading to two or more of these chapters back to back - it's frustrating to realize you're just reading a repeat of the last chapter, and yet the narrators still want to impress upon you how incredible their story is. If everything is presented as high drama, then nothing is dramatic - it all just becomes exhausting and tedious. This really disappoints me because the story's actual subject matter is a very important one that's worth writing about - I just don't feel it was done well here.
So much of the actual story line feels too convenient. Without getting into spoilers, it's a little baffling how so much progress is made literally only because the antagonists all decide to give away key pieces of information to our protagonist - completely of their own volition - even when it makes no sense. The ending as well was kind of... strange. No spoilers here, but it seemed way too convenient that there were so many open doors in front of our protagonists in the last chapter, and that there were literally no repercussions at all for what happened.
Story and pacing aside, my biggest gripe with this book was how insufferable Mab was. It's like she can't decide whether she has a hero complex or a victim complex. She's sarcastic, impatient, and worst of all just outright mean to her sisters, especially to Monday. Her chapters are also the most prone to repetitive similes and thesaurus abuse. Every single paragraph is peppered with sections like: "It's not quite like a this, almost like a this, or maybe even a this - so-and-so would say (insert SAT prep word here)." It's like listening to someone try to write their first creative essay. I'll admit that part of my frustration with her character may be that she was voiced by Emma Galvin, whom I've realized is not to my taste at all. Galvin's reading style puts a lot of emphasis on emotional inflection - her readings are very breathy and shaky, almost like she's about to start crying, and she ends every sentence as though it were a doubtful, half-hearted question. It's just tiring to listen to. I can't take her "male character" voice seriously either - it has a comical effect so I always picture the men she narrates as doofs.
On a positive note, I did enjoy the chapters told by Monday and Mirabel. Monday in particular had a wonderful way of looking at the world, and getting to be in her head was always a pleasant reprieve after another annoying Mab chapter. Unfortunately, these two sisters always feel second place to Mab, who's often presented as the main protagonist.
I almost dropped this book on multiple separate occasions, but the high praise it received made me stick it through just to see if it would eventually get better. In the end, I feel that it unfortunately only got more tiresome, and by the last chapter I ended up just letting it play in the background while multitasking.
Also, a heads up if you also want to listen to this as an audiobook - be aware that there is a lot of arguing and shouting in this book, which is not super pleasant to listen to.
A few other notes below that may contain spoilers:
It was extremely uncomfortable hearing about two 16-year-olds awkwardly leading up to and then frequently having sex, especially considering there was no chemistry between them that would make that kind of relationship make sense. We're just told that their relationship is magical and wonderful, not shown anything at all that indicates that.
Mirabel was done so dirty - she was by far a more interesting character than Mab, but we hardly get to see her do anything. She's always just witnessing things. Couldn't she have been given more meaningful relationships she gets to engage in? I get that this is an important part of her background, but wouldn't this story have been a great opportunity to allow her to find some of what she's been looking for?
You know that quote, "The one unforgivable sin is to be boring"? Unfortunately, this novel is gravely guilty of that.
Very little actually happens in this book, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing - I can enjoy a good character-driven novel if it's written well - but One Two Three spends so much time trying to impress you with how dramatic and dire every little thing is. Over and over and over again. The narrative flow is to have a chapter for each triplet in order - one, two, three, then repeat - but for some reason this often resulted in each sister retelling what the previous sister just narrated in her own words. This is especially painful when listening/reading to two or more of these chapters back to back - it's frustrating to realize you're just reading a repeat of the last chapter, and yet the narrators still want to impress upon you how incredible their story is. If everything is presented as high drama, then nothing is dramatic - it all just becomes exhausting and tedious. This really disappoints me because the story's actual subject matter is a very important one that's worth writing about - I just don't feel it was done well here.
So much of the actual story line feels too convenient. Without getting into spoilers, it's a little baffling how so much progress is made literally only because the antagonists all decide to give away key pieces of information to our protagonist - completely of their own volition - even when it makes no sense. The ending as well was kind of... strange. No spoilers here, but it seemed way too convenient that there were so many open doors in front of our protagonists in the last chapter, and that there were literally no repercussions at all for what happened.
Story and pacing aside, my biggest gripe with this book was how insufferable Mab was. It's like she can't decide whether she has a hero complex or a victim complex. She's sarcastic, impatient, and worst of all just outright mean to her sisters, especially to Monday. Her chapters are also the most prone to repetitive similes and thesaurus abuse. Every single paragraph is peppered with sections like: "It's not quite like a this, almost like a this, or maybe even a this - so-and-so would say (insert SAT prep word here)." It's like listening to someone try to write their first creative essay. I'll admit that part of my frustration with her character may be that she was voiced by Emma Galvin, whom I've realized is not to my taste at all. Galvin's reading style puts a lot of emphasis on emotional inflection - her readings are very breathy and shaky, almost like she's about to start crying, and she ends every sentence as though it were a doubtful, half-hearted question. It's just tiring to listen to. I can't take her "male character" voice seriously either - it has a comical effect so I always picture the men she narrates as doofs.
On a positive note, I did enjoy the chapters told by Monday and Mirabel. Monday in particular had a wonderful way of looking at the world, and getting to be in her head was always a pleasant reprieve after another annoying Mab chapter. Unfortunately, these two sisters always feel second place to Mab, who's often presented as the main protagonist.
I almost dropped this book on multiple separate occasions, but the high praise it received made me stick it through just to see if it would eventually get better. In the end, I feel that it unfortunately only got more tiresome, and by the last chapter I ended up just letting it play in the background while multitasking.
Also, a heads up if you also want to listen to this as an audiobook - be aware that there is a lot of arguing and shouting in this book, which is not super pleasant to listen to.
A few other notes below that may contain spoilers:
It was extremely uncomfortable hearing about two 16-year-olds awkwardly leading up to and then frequently having sex, especially considering there was no chemistry between them that would make that kind of relationship make sense. We're just told that their relationship is magical and wonderful, not shown anything at all that indicates that.
Mirabel was done so dirty - she was by far a more interesting character than Mab, but we hardly get to see her do anything. She's always just witnessing things. Couldn't she have been given more meaningful relationships she gets to engage in? I get that this is an important part of her background, but wouldn't this story have been a great opportunity to allow her to find some of what she's been looking for?