Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by youngling80
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
3.0
I'm confused.
That is to say, I didn't dislike the book ... but I don't think I really liked it either? Let's do a pros and cons list, shall we? Perhaps that will help me decide.
PROS:
🔸It was about a musician. I loved the references to music, songs, etc.
🔸Pacing was good. It was easy to zoom right through this, especially with the audio.
🔸I LOVED how the relationship between Greta and her dad was portrayed. It was depicted very well with all the right kind of tension. To me, this was really the best stuff in there. The sign at the concert toward the end was THE BEST.
CONS:
🔸I have a major issue with cheating. I don't care if Greta and Luke were pretty much over ... she hadn't had that conversation with Luke, so for her to hook up with another guy (even given the circumstances) ... well, it just soured me on her. If you're a cheater, you automatically lose credibility with me. For the Ben separation/divorce thing, at least it seemed as if he had had a conversation with his former partner about the "rules" for relationships during the separation.
🔸In general, Greta's lack of communication in her relationships was frustrating to me. We saw this in the cheating thing, but we also see it in her relationship with her hook-up boy (another thing that I didn't like). She narrates as if they have this unspoken understanding about how the rules for them work, but the fact that they haven't had a conversation about it means that their communication sucks and there is room for different/changing feelings, which was a thing.
🔸Greta just seemed extremely self-absorbed and, dare I say, selfish. She seemed to have difficulty in putting herself into the shoes of others and trying to see the perspectives of others. The fact that she couldn't understand or be bothered to care about the fact that the song she wrote about her father would hurt him was so self-centered. Sorry, I'm a big believer in the idea that just because we have a thought/feeling doesn't make it true and doesn't mean it needs to be shared (and I say that as a songwriter/writer myself). Greta seemed to feel that just because she felt something and captured it on paper, it deserved to be shared without regard. To be fair, she did apologize to her dad for this at the end, but it was hard to watch.
I guess, overall I'm saying the book was well-written, and I enjoyed some of the themes in it (complex familiar relationships, familial expectation, grief/loss) but I just didn't really enjoy the main character ... which makes it hard to want to root for her. This one just hit meh for me.
That is to say, I didn't dislike the book ... but I don't think I really liked it either? Let's do a pros and cons list, shall we? Perhaps that will help me decide.
PROS:
🔸It was about a musician. I loved the references to music, songs, etc.
🔸Pacing was good. It was easy to zoom right through this, especially with the audio.
🔸I LOVED how the relationship between Greta and her dad was portrayed. It was depicted very well with all the right kind of tension. To me, this was really the best stuff in there. The sign at the concert toward the end was THE BEST.
CONS:
🔸I have a major issue with cheating. I don't care if Greta and Luke were pretty much over ... she hadn't had that conversation with Luke, so for her to hook up with another guy (even given the circumstances) ... well, it just soured me on her. If you're a cheater, you automatically lose credibility with me. For the Ben separation/divorce thing, at least it seemed as if he had had a conversation with his former partner about the "rules" for relationships during the separation.
🔸In general, Greta's lack of communication in her relationships was frustrating to me. We saw this in the cheating thing, but we also see it in her relationship with her hook-up boy (another thing that I didn't like). She narrates as if they have this unspoken understanding about how the rules for them work, but the fact that they haven't had a conversation about it means that their communication sucks and there is room for different/changing feelings, which was a thing.
🔸Greta just seemed extremely self-absorbed and, dare I say, selfish. She seemed to have difficulty in putting herself into the shoes of others and trying to see the perspectives of others. The fact that she couldn't understand or be bothered to care about the fact that the song she wrote about her father would hurt him was so self-centered. Sorry, I'm a big believer in the idea that just because we have a thought/feeling doesn't make it true and doesn't mean it needs to be shared (and I say that as a songwriter/writer myself). Greta seemed to feel that just because she felt something and captured it on paper, it deserved to be shared without regard. To be fair, she did apologize to her dad for this at the end, but it was hard to watch.
I guess, overall I'm saying the book was well-written, and I enjoyed some of the themes in it (complex familiar relationships, familial expectation, grief/loss) but I just didn't really enjoy the main character ... which makes it hard to want to root for her. This one just hit meh for me.