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jenweening 's review for:
The Finishing School
by Joanna Goodman
I put a hold on this book after I finished reading The Home for Unwanted Girls by the same author. I really loved The Home for Unwanted Girls and had high hopes for this one as well. I flew through this book as I wanted to know what happened; however, as some other reviewers have touched on, I found the book problematic in several ways.
1) Kersti's and Cressida's relationship did not feel developed to me in the way that the Kersti seems to describe it. Cressida, as one character puts it, seems a little bit like a sociopath (and I didn't disagree), and I fully expected after that comment to see something happen to justify that comment.
2) Kersti feels, after a whole novel spent with her, pretty whiny and annoyingly self-deprecating. Her "revelation" did not seem, to me, to justify setting a whole book around it. Furthermore, her relationship with her husband, Jay, did not seem realistic to me at all. (As if he agreed to that egg donation?!?)
3) The egg donation and the whole infertility storyline. WTF. That was so creepy and the whole storyline felt unnecessary to the book. Back to the sociopath comment - I fully thought that there was going to be some crazy revelation about Cressida's mental health and Kersti would be put into a tailspin about her pregnancy. But no, just a side story subplot with a randomly convenient coincidence that took away from the novel, rather than adding to it.
4) Kersti's experience with Magnus - both their "date" and her attitude toward it afterwards felt deeply wrong to me. She was raped, and the fact that this was never really explicitly addressed or even named for what it was bothered me a lot. Kersti's continuing to wish that she could be with Magnus and the wedge that it (sort of) puts in her and Cressida's relationship seemed so off to me.
Anyway, this book was a quick read and somewhat enjoyable at the time, but upon further reflection I wouldn't highly recommend it. Definitely does not live up to the author's success in The Home for Unwanted Girls - read that one instead!
1) Kersti's and Cressida's relationship did not feel developed to me in the way that the Kersti seems to describe it. Cressida, as one character puts it, seems a little bit like a sociopath (and I didn't disagree), and I fully expected after that comment to see something happen to justify that comment.
2) Kersti feels, after a whole novel spent with her, pretty whiny and annoyingly self-deprecating. Her "revelation" did not seem, to me, to justify setting a whole book around it. Furthermore, her relationship with her husband, Jay, did not seem realistic to me at all. (As if he agreed to that egg donation?!?)
3) The egg donation and the whole infertility storyline. WTF. That was so creepy and the whole storyline felt unnecessary to the book. Back to the sociopath comment - I fully thought that there was going to be some crazy revelation about Cressida's mental health and Kersti would be put into a tailspin about her pregnancy. But no, just a side story subplot with a randomly convenient coincidence that took away from the novel, rather than adding to it.
4) Kersti's experience with Magnus - both their "date" and her attitude toward it afterwards felt deeply wrong to me. She was raped, and the fact that this was never really explicitly addressed or even named for what it was bothered me a lot. Kersti's continuing to wish that she could be with Magnus and the wedge that it (sort of) puts in her and Cressida's relationship seemed so off to me.
Anyway, this book was a quick read and somewhat enjoyable at the time, but upon further reflection I wouldn't highly recommend it. Definitely does not live up to the author's success in The Home for Unwanted Girls - read that one instead!