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A review by rereader33
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
3.0
Okay, being a little nit-picky here, but I'm technically giving this a 3.5 out of 5. I'm not going to lie, part of me want to give it a 4 purely because of the imagery and how its themes were presented, but I can't for various reasons. The biggest reason is this book was not terribly entertaining. The only reason why I finished it as quickly as I did was a). The story itself is only 183 pages long, b). The drama propelled the story forward, and c). The chapters were really short. Before I go any farther into the negatives, let me highlight some positives.
The writing is well-done without bogging the reader down. Arnold clearly knows when to be flower-y and poetic and when to be down-to-earth. The idea of the female body as consumption was done well and was effective in certain scenes. The stories that breakup the actual story are equal parts disturbing and intriguing, though some go a little too far in the disturbing category. This is a novel that deals with the female body in all its gross, gory glory and does not shy away from it, which I greatly appreciated. However, there were a number of flaws that I cannot overlook.
First and foremost, none of the characters, including the main character, are particularly likable. They are either complete scumbags, might as well not be there, or just terrible people. Nina is okay, she's easily the most likable (though that's not saying much) and I honestly did not have an issue with how devoted and obsessed she was over Seth. The problem I had with her was that I did not truly understand her as a character. It's almost like the author was using her as a speaker to get her point across without developing her into her own person. I am not saying that likable characters are absolutely necessary for a story to be successful (with some stories it makes sense that all of the characters are unlikable) but considering what the author was trying to say, it did not help that I couldn't really feel for Nina or care about anyone else. The other major issue that I had was that the story would jump from Nina's present issues to her family (a huge portion is devoted to a trip to Rome she went on with her mom) that was incredibly jarring. We spend a good portion of the story following Nina as she tries to make this relationship work, then its several chapters of bouncing back and forth between her problems and this trip she went on. Not to mention the fact that I am honestly not sure why that trip was significant aside from the knowledge Nina acquires about saints and what a terrible mother her mom is. I couldn't help but get to the end of that portion of the story and think, "so what was the point?" Maybe I haven't given it enough thought, but for how jarring it was bouncing back and forth in the narrative, the reason for its inclusion should have been more clear than explaining why Nina knows so much about saints.
I don't think this book is terrible. I think that it accurately depicts how girls determine their worth based on male interaction and the writing was great, but overall I was a little disappointed. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be and the characters weren't great, either. A solid read, but not something I would pick up again.
The writing is well-done without bogging the reader down. Arnold clearly knows when to be flower-y and poetic and when to be down-to-earth. The idea of the female body as consumption was done well and was effective in certain scenes. The stories that breakup the actual story are equal parts disturbing and intriguing, though some go a little too far in the disturbing category. This is a novel that deals with the female body in all its gross, gory glory and does not shy away from it, which I greatly appreciated. However, there were a number of flaws that I cannot overlook.
First and foremost, none of the characters, including the main character, are particularly likable. They are either complete scumbags, might as well not be there, or just terrible people. Nina is okay, she's easily the most likable (though that's not saying much) and I honestly did not have an issue with how devoted and obsessed she was over Seth. The problem I had with her was that I did not truly understand her as a character. It's almost like the author was using her as a speaker to get her point across without developing her into her own person. I am not saying that likable characters are absolutely necessary for a story to be successful (with some stories it makes sense that all of the characters are unlikable) but considering what the author was trying to say, it did not help that I couldn't really feel for Nina or care about anyone else. The other major issue that I had was that the story would jump from Nina's present issues to her family (a huge portion is devoted to a trip to Rome she went on with her mom) that was incredibly jarring. We spend a good portion of the story following Nina as she tries to make this relationship work, then its several chapters of bouncing back and forth between her problems and this trip she went on. Not to mention the fact that I am honestly not sure why that trip was significant aside from the knowledge Nina acquires about saints and what a terrible mother her mom is. I couldn't help but get to the end of that portion of the story and think, "so what was the point?" Maybe I haven't given it enough thought, but for how jarring it was bouncing back and forth in the narrative, the reason for its inclusion should have been more clear than explaining why Nina knows so much about saints.
I don't think this book is terrible. I think that it accurately depicts how girls determine their worth based on male interaction and the writing was great, but overall I was a little disappointed. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be and the characters weren't great, either. A solid read, but not something I would pick up again.