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A review by darbyjane1
Where I Live by Brenda Rufener
3.0
(spoilers)
This book deals with heavy subjects, and I don't mind that, but you probably won't enjoy this book if you do mind.
For a book dealing with such hard hitting topics, I thought that the writing would be more serious sometimes. I know that she's pretending to live a normal life, and hide her homelessness, but it just didn't make that much sense. I get that she can be happy and enjoy her time with her friends, but I just don't think it'd be that happy. And even when she was happy and joking with her friends, the dialogue came across as cringey and forced to me.
Sometimes I found it hard to route for the main character. I don't understand why I'd want her to win if she's constantly lying and hurting everyone she cares about to protect her image. I know that's also part of Linden's conflict, but it just made me dislike her.
I thought Ham was very obnoxious, and I didn't see any point for his character other than some comic relief, and he was more annoying than comical.
There were also points in the book where the description was just kind of weird. I only remember one specific instance where this happens. Linden's thinking about Seung, her friend and love interest, and how he had a major glow up over the past year. She's looking at him, and he yawns, and she thinks: "Seung's 2.0 is so hot. His breath used to smell like breakfast, but now it just smells like toothpaste." I just thought that was really weird, and redundant. And gross.
I was originally going to give this book 2 stars, but I liked Linden and Seung's romance. And even though some things with the plot of Linden's homelessness didn't really make much sense for me, I felt like the plotline with domestic abuse was handled quite well. I also liked the ending, it was really sweet and cute.
Some parts of this book were just kind of off to me, but I did like the ending, and the heavy topics were handled well, for the most part.
This book deals with heavy subjects, and I don't mind that, but you probably won't enjoy this book if you do mind.
For a book dealing with such hard hitting topics, I thought that the writing would be more serious sometimes. I know that she's pretending to live a normal life, and hide her homelessness, but it just didn't make that much sense. I get that she can be happy and enjoy her time with her friends, but I just don't think it'd be that happy. And even when she was happy and joking with her friends, the dialogue came across as cringey and forced to me.
Sometimes I found it hard to route for the main character. I don't understand why I'd want her to win if she's constantly lying and hurting everyone she cares about to protect her image. I know that's also part of Linden's conflict, but it just made me dislike her.
I thought Ham was very obnoxious, and I didn't see any point for his character other than some comic relief, and he was more annoying than comical.
There were also points in the book where the description was just kind of weird. I only remember one specific instance where this happens. Linden's thinking about Seung, her friend and love interest, and how he had a major glow up over the past year. She's looking at him, and he yawns, and she thinks: "Seung's 2.0 is so hot. His breath used to smell like breakfast, but now it just smells like toothpaste." I just thought that was really weird, and redundant. And gross.
I was originally going to give this book 2 stars, but I liked Linden and Seung's romance. And even though some things with the plot of Linden's homelessness didn't really make much sense for me, I felt like the plotline with domestic abuse was handled quite well. I also liked the ending, it was really sweet and cute.
Some parts of this book were just kind of off to me, but I did like the ending, and the heavy topics were handled well, for the most part.