Scan barcode
A review by eiverlit
They Say Sarah by Pauline Delabroy-Allard
2.0
Plot: Set in Paris, we have a 30-something teacher raising a daughter on her own, lonely in spite of a new boyfriend. And then at a party, she meets Sarah—a talented young violinist who's loud, vivacious, and appealingly unkempt. And from there on, they began an intense relationship.
I don't really know where to begin with this review but let me start off with an observation. So basically the entire book's written in prose and we can only see the point of view of the narrator which is the 30-something teacher. The writing style was very narrative and you don't really see a full dialogue with quotation marks. Aside from that, what I've noticed is that, we obviously see from the plot, that Sarah the young violinist is well, young. But do you really consider her as "young" when in fact, the narrator basically says that Sarah's nearly thirty-five? I mean, the narrator herself is 30-something so they should be around the same age bracket.
How everything was written was kind of a breath of fresh air for me, however, I think that the plot was too narrowed down to the point that it's all about Sarah. Literally. The scenes were kind of unrealistic like when like it was unrealistic because first of all, she has a child whose barely old enough, and she has a partner who at the first few pages she's only interacted to and then ignored all throughout the rest of the story. I didn't like the narrator at all. I think she was too obsessed with Sarah because most of the time, she narrates about Sarah this, Sarah that. She's so confusing to the point that I myself am also confused too with what's happening in the book.
So yeah, it was kind of a disappointing read for me. I was all for it because I thought it would be a nice and bittersweet story but I didn't really like how the characters were played out. It only left me befuddled in the end.
2 star read.
I don't really know where to begin with this review but let me start off with an observation. So basically the entire book's written in prose and we can only see the point of view of the narrator which is the 30-something teacher. The writing style was very narrative and you don't really see a full dialogue with quotation marks. Aside from that, what I've noticed is that, we obviously see from the plot, that Sarah the young violinist is well, young. But do you really consider her as "young" when in fact, the narrator basically says that Sarah's nearly thirty-five? I mean, the narrator herself is 30-something so they should be around the same age bracket.
How everything was written was kind of a breath of fresh air for me, however, I think that the plot was too narrowed down to the point that it's all about Sarah. Literally. The scenes were kind of unrealistic like when
Spoiler
the narrator runs away after Sarah tells her she doesn't love her anymore and confesses that she has breast cancerSpoiler
She was so bipolar in a way that she runs away from home and to Italy because she doesn't want to see Sarah and when she gets to Italy, she thinks she misses her.So yeah, it was kind of a disappointing read for me. I was all for it because I thought it would be a nice and bittersweet story but I didn't really like how the characters were played out. It only left me befuddled in the end.
2 star read.