rae_rif 's review for:

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

5.0

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i re-read this in the summer of 2017. i know i had read it quite a few times back in college and after, but it had been probably at least 10 years since i had revisited. i was recommending it to friends, and realized i should check back in to make sure it held up as well as i remembered it. it did. i would still give it 5 stars, though i wonder if i was reading it for the first time at 33 if i still would, but i think i would. the language is gorgeous, and even knowing vaguely all that would happen, i still found it super compelling. i tore through the book in maybe a week? it's always interesting revisiting books way later. when this came out in 2001, i was a sr. in high school and while i obvs didn't have much in common with astrid, she was clearly the protagonist whom i was closest in age to. now, i'm claire's age, and in some ways found it easier to identify with ingrid than astrid. at the very least, i was impressed with how confident ingrid was, never wavering in her faith in herself/her search for beauty. i remember thinking there had been more to astrid/paul's love story, this time it felt a little underdeveloped. i think she was going to leave him in the end, the cold would keep getting to her and the california sunshine would keep pulling on her. plus, she admitted it was in her blood to wander around. i have to wonder how much of that ideology (about having wander lust but always knowing what time it was in CA) subconsciously affected my own outlook...i would love for the author to revisit astrid and write something about what she turned out like in her 30's...