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louandlife 's review for:
My Favourite Manson Girl
by Alison Umminger
This book was not what I was expecting it to be (I feel like a broken record having said that a lot in my last couple of reviews, but I think it's a sign that I should stop imagining how books will be like). This book is about a girl who runs away from her parents to live with her sister in LA for the summer, and she lands a job researching the Manson girls (the women a part of Charles Manson's cult that killed people in LA in 1969). As a concept it sounded intriguing... in reality it was a let down. By the time I finished this book, I felt like it would be better if the Manson parts were taken out. The addition of the Manson girls gives this contemporary book a distinguishing feature, but it weakened the story. I felt like the bits on the Manson girls just didn't fit. When there would be a paragraph where Anna would tell us what she learnt, it would be amongst her daily life and it felt forced in and interrupted the story. And she though about Manson and the girls a lot... like almost an obsession, and in the most inappropriate of times too.
The plot was nothing remarkable. This book focused more on relationships, than a clear plot. It was relatively realistic. I liked the romance but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it, and was such a small part of the subplot. I almost felt like some of the plot was pointless. The only reason why I finished this book was because it was short, but from about 100 pages in I knew that it wasn't going to be a great read and was tempted to put it down. It is disappointing because I really love the cover (and I have it in hardback) but the story inside just didn't match the cover...
And the characters... I only really liked Dex and I felt like his character was given the short end of the stick. I also liked Jeremy but he wasn't that developed. I felt like Anna was selfish, and inconsiderate, so was Delia (although I did like her in the beginning) but she was also untrustworthy. I hated their mother... and Roger was a creep. Dex was the only redeeming character and he was barely in it, and was not developed. The imperfectness of family felt real, but I didn't like anyone in that family.
Overall... I wouldn't recommend this book. I think I will unhaul it eventually (I'm going to be really sad to part with the cover though) because I'm not going to reread it and it has no positive sentimental value. This book actually made me not want to ever visit LA...
The plot was nothing remarkable. This book focused more on relationships, than a clear plot. It was relatively realistic. I liked the romance but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it, and was such a small part of the subplot. I almost felt like some of the plot was pointless. The only reason why I finished this book was because it was short, but from about 100 pages in I knew that it wasn't going to be a great read and was tempted to put it down. It is disappointing because I really love the cover (and I have it in hardback) but the story inside just didn't match the cover...
And the characters... I only really liked Dex and I felt like his character was given the short end of the stick. I also liked Jeremy but he wasn't that developed. I felt like Anna was selfish, and inconsiderate, so was Delia (although I did like her in the beginning) but she was also untrustworthy. I hated their mother... and Roger was a creep. Dex was the only redeeming character and he was barely in it, and was not developed. The imperfectness of family felt real, but I didn't like anyone in that family.
Overall... I wouldn't recommend this book. I think I will unhaul it eventually (I'm going to be really sad to part with the cover though) because I'm not going to reread it and it has no positive sentimental value. This book actually made me not want to ever visit LA...