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A review by graggirl
The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick
1.0
I've started reading books alongside my daughter to encourage her to read. We take turns picking books. I wanted to pre read this book because I had heard it was popular but didn't know enough to feel comfortable recommending it. I was so disappointed. The writing is poor. It passes back and forth through four narrators. But they all have the same narrative voice which is confusing. The characters are very stereotypical. Also, the last section (summer) is sensational and wholly doesn't match the rest of the book. It is far reaching and completely lost me. The other writing point that bothered me was the way the author struggled to interject the historical connections into the story. For the most part they start with the same mother always saying "you know girls the Alcott's did x, y, and z." Subtlety is completely unknown in this book.
What bothered me most and why I won't be suggesting it to my daughter is because of the heroines in the story continually acting out the same mean girl behavior they are the victims of. The author seems hyper sensitive about weight because it is a criticism of the main villain (repeatedly and inappropriately) and even one of the main narrators. These two characters scarcely get referred to without their weight being part of the description. The girl who is pudgy also happens to be the one who has the best mother daughter relationship. Almost as if to say: you can be close to your family or you can be pretty but not both. There is one non-white dyad in the book. Unfortunately they are portrayed as the stereotypical tiger mother, daughter duo. On the whole I found very little of value in this book. I hate when authors feel that poor writing = younger audience. I also hate when they feel that girls need to continue to be marginalized the way they have been in other novels. I hope some author tries a concept like this again with more depth, better writing, and stronger mothers. The mothers in this book are just mean girls grown up who aren't open to accepting their daughters.
What bothered me most and why I won't be suggesting it to my daughter is because of the heroines in the story continually acting out the same mean girl behavior they are the victims of. The author seems hyper sensitive about weight because it is a criticism of the main villain (repeatedly and inappropriately) and even one of the main narrators. These two characters scarcely get referred to without their weight being part of the description. The girl who is pudgy also happens to be the one who has the best mother daughter relationship. Almost as if to say: you can be close to your family or you can be pretty but not both. There is one non-white dyad in the book. Unfortunately they are portrayed as the stereotypical tiger mother, daughter duo. On the whole I found very little of value in this book. I hate when authors feel that poor writing = younger audience. I also hate when they feel that girls need to continue to be marginalized the way they have been in other novels. I hope some author tries a concept like this again with more depth, better writing, and stronger mothers. The mothers in this book are just mean girls grown up who aren't open to accepting their daughters.