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A review by wunkymatts
The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein
3.0
I picked this up because it was in the little shelf where I keep my favourite books, but I could barely remember anything about it. I must have loved it at one point, or else it wouldn't have been there, but now I don't love it.
I can see the glimmers of what held me so spellbound. I think I probably related a bit too much to the narrator, whereas now she just came across as a bit cringe. I know all teenagers are self obsessed, which is probably why I tend to avoid YA fiction (is this classed as YA? There's certainly an argument for it). Maybe the years have given me a bit of distance and I now am (hopefully) no longer so self obsessed myself the irritation just gets too much.
And yet I can see why I must have liked her so much at the time. Intense, clever, creative. As much as it makes me roll my eyes now I clearly related to her. There was (cringe again) something about me in her.
I wasn't sold on the hands down, flat out decision that it was a psychotic break. I know, I know, it still might not have been, but I just didn't believe the clues enough to really be swayed.
That being said I did enjoy the way it was written. Some passages sounded similar to how I sometimes write in my own journal, and when I came across them they brought me up short. I did like the brooding setting and I could picture the school so easily. The gradually building sense of menace was also well done. Very gothic, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I can see the glimmers of what held me so spellbound. I think I probably related a bit too much to the narrator, whereas now she just came across as a bit cringe. I know all teenagers are self obsessed, which is probably why I tend to avoid YA fiction (is this classed as YA? There's certainly an argument for it). Maybe the years have given me a bit of distance and I now am (hopefully) no longer so self obsessed myself the irritation just gets too much.
And yet I can see why I must have liked her so much at the time. Intense, clever, creative. As much as it makes me roll my eyes now I clearly related to her. There was (cringe again) something about me in her.
I wasn't sold on the hands down, flat out decision that it was a psychotic break. I know, I know, it still might not have been, but I just didn't believe the clues enough to really be swayed.
That being said I did enjoy the way it was written. Some passages sounded similar to how I sometimes write in my own journal, and when I came across them they brought me up short. I did like the brooding setting and I could picture the school so easily. The gradually building sense of menace was also well done. Very gothic, and there's nothing wrong with that.