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A review by liralen
Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman
4.0
I loved this right up until the very end, at which point I realised a couple of things:
1) There's a Big Reveal at the end. Not that Big Reveals can't be done, or done well for that matter, but I tend to take a fairly lukewarm view of them—it makes the story more about that Reveal than about, well, everything else.
2) Most of the characters Ingrid spends time with on her wilderness trek aren't really fleshed out, partly because so much time is given to Ingrid's pre-trek life and partly because there's romantic drama on the wilderness trek.
It's the latter that bothers me more—there are some characters with potentially fascinating backstories, and I'd have loved to see them given time to develop (as characters, not just to develop the backstories) throughout the book. At the same time, though, the rest of the story does feel relevant, so...it probably would have been hard to flesh everyone out without making this a 500-page behemoth. I do love Ingrid's development (right up until the Big Reveal); she changes, but not an unrealistic amount, and not in ways that make her into a completely different person. The ending didn't work for me, but the rest of the book worked so well, so...
I'm not usually one to chomp at the bit for sequels to standalone books, but I'd be very happy to see Ingrid managing her future school endeavours.
1) There's a Big Reveal at the end. Not that Big Reveals can't be done, or done well for that matter, but I tend to take a fairly lukewarm view of them—it makes the story more about that Reveal than about, well, everything else.
2) Most of the characters Ingrid spends time with on her wilderness trek aren't really fleshed out, partly because so much time is given to Ingrid's pre-trek life and partly because there's romantic drama on the wilderness trek.
It's the latter that bothers me more—there are some characters with potentially fascinating backstories, and I'd have loved to see them given time to develop (as characters, not just to develop the backstories) throughout the book. At the same time, though, the rest of the story does feel relevant, so...it probably would have been hard to flesh everyone out without making this a 500-page behemoth. I do love Ingrid's development (right up until the Big Reveal); she changes, but not an unrealistic amount, and not in ways that make her into a completely different person. The ending didn't work for me, but the rest of the book worked so well, so...
I'm not usually one to chomp at the bit for sequels to standalone books, but I'd be very happy to see Ingrid managing her future school endeavours.