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A review by hellocreativefamily
Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
3.0
This book has a very original premise. It's about a single mother and her teenage daughter. The mother works long hours delivering babies and the daughter is a busy high school student. With little time for face to face contact Claire and her mother resort to writing notes and letters to each other and posting them on the refrigerator door.
Unfortunately the story line isn't very original. You pretty much know what is going to happen as soon as you hear that the mother is sick. It was very nice to see the ups and downs of the mother and daughter relationship and how fear and grief spark anger and regret. As I was reading I wished that the notes on the fridge were just part of the book instead of the entire book. The mother left several notes saying "We need to talk, this isn't something we should discuss in notes." (not a quote). Then the notes would pick up after the discussion had taken place. I felt that I would have been able to invest a lot more emotion into the characters if I was able to get to know them on a deeper level. Perhaps the author didn't want us to get to know the characters too deeply so that all women could see themselves, their mothers and their daughters in these characters.
I'm a sucker for books told from the point of view of multiple characters so if I were to make this my perfect book I would probably have the book alternate between the points of view of Claire and her mom with the fridge notes sprinkled in.
All in all this was a very quick read and worth the time I invested in it. I liked it but it could have easily been the type of book to bring me to tears with some adjustments.
Unfortunately the story line isn't very original. You pretty much know what is going to happen as soon as you hear that the mother is sick. It was very nice to see the ups and downs of the mother and daughter relationship and how fear and grief spark anger and regret. As I was reading I wished that the notes on the fridge were just part of the book instead of the entire book. The mother left several notes saying "We need to talk, this isn't something we should discuss in notes." (not a quote). Then the notes would pick up after the discussion had taken place. I felt that I would have been able to invest a lot more emotion into the characters if I was able to get to know them on a deeper level. Perhaps the author didn't want us to get to know the characters too deeply so that all women could see themselves, their mothers and their daughters in these characters.
I'm a sucker for books told from the point of view of multiple characters so if I were to make this my perfect book I would probably have the book alternate between the points of view of Claire and her mom with the fridge notes sprinkled in.
All in all this was a very quick read and worth the time I invested in it. I liked it but it could have easily been the type of book to bring me to tears with some adjustments.