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A review by smpearce
Stranded by Melinda Braun
2.0
I was really excited for this book, I love survival-type stories. I was pretty disappointed. To be honest, this was an annoying read in a lot of ways.
I’ll start with the positives I guess:
-the pacing was good, and the read was quick.
-the main character’s backstory was interesting
-the plot concept was really cool
The negatives:
-probably the most significant factor in my dislike for this book was the constant instances of bigotry (particularly homophobia, misogyny, racism, ableism) that while not usually put in a positive light, weren’t exactly challenged, either. The “good” characters didn’t call things out very often at all, the instances felt too normalized.
-the first 100 pages or so of the book seemed to be building romantic chemistry for Emma and Chloe, and I quite liked their friendship, but then Emma starts having a (very sudden?) interest in Oscar which I felt was awkward/lacked chemistry.
-Isaac was clearly a threat to safety and overall horrible to the group, yet nothing was done about him. They kept saying they needed him to survive but this really didn’t seem to be the case. It would have been very easy to leave him behind or eliminate him entirely, and I especially thought this would be done after he made clear he was a sexual predator.
-The somewhat sympathetic backstory that seemed randomly given to Isaac near the end? Not sure what readers were supposed to take from this. He didn’t grow at all and doesn’t deserve sympathy for his terrible actions.
-character development could have been a lot stronger.
-some of the survival things didn’t seem quite accurate, and the characters seemed to lack logic in some ways.
Overall I was able to finish the read and liked the concept behind this novel a lot, however the delivery had a lot of problematic and unappealing elements in my opinion. Please note this is my subjective opinion and readers should always be encouraged to form their own perspectives.
I’ll start with the positives I guess:
-the pacing was good, and the read was quick.
-the main character’s backstory was interesting
-the plot concept was really cool
The negatives:
-probably the most significant factor in my dislike for this book was the constant instances of bigotry (particularly homophobia, misogyny, racism, ableism) that while not usually put in a positive light, weren’t exactly challenged, either. The “good” characters didn’t call things out very often at all, the instances felt too normalized.
-the first 100 pages or so of the book seemed to be building romantic chemistry for Emma and Chloe, and I quite liked their friendship, but then Emma starts having a (very sudden?) interest in Oscar which I felt was awkward/lacked chemistry.
-Isaac was clearly a threat to safety and overall horrible to the group, yet nothing was done about him. They kept saying they needed him to survive but this really didn’t seem to be the case. It would have been very easy to leave him behind or eliminate him entirely, and I especially thought this would be done after he made clear he was a sexual predator.
-The somewhat sympathetic backstory that seemed randomly given to Isaac near the end? Not sure what readers were supposed to take from this. He didn’t grow at all and doesn’t deserve sympathy for his terrible actions.
-character development could have been a lot stronger.
-some of the survival things didn’t seem quite accurate, and the characters seemed to lack logic in some ways.
Overall I was able to finish the read and liked the concept behind this novel a lot, however the delivery had a lot of problematic and unappealing elements in my opinion. Please note this is my subjective opinion and readers should always be encouraged to form their own perspectives.