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A review by luhos
Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
this tried to do too much, and ended up doing none of it successfully. i found the first ~60% to be almost pointless, and was wondering where it was going. it got interesting in the end, but still, sort of lightly grazed many things rather than dealing with any of them properly. i hoped for more from
fay’s character and was quite frankly disappointed with how their final chapter ended, and nell’s final chapter and “where are they now?” of the rest of the cast felt so cringe. most of the time it reads like a series of livejournal posts (not a good thing). i almost feel like if it were marketed as YA it would be successful as that, but i don’t think it is successful as literary fiction. overall i just couldn’t get into this and if it weren’t for my stubborn insistence to finish every book i probably would have DNF’d it.
fay’s character and was quite frankly disappointed with how their final chapter ended, and nell’s final chapter and “where are they now?” of the rest of the cast felt so cringe. most of the time it reads like a series of livejournal posts (not a good thing). i almost feel like if it were marketed as YA it would be successful as that, but i don’t think it is successful as literary fiction. overall i just couldn’t get into this and if it weren’t for my stubborn insistence to finish every book i probably would have DNF’d it.