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wordsofclover's review
3.0
I was sent a copy of this book by O'Briens Press, Ireland, in exchange for an honest review.
Jane is struggling. Her sister is ill with cancer, her parents are always in the hospital or working and Jane feels numb to it all. She's kipping school and wandering aimlessly around town or watching her boyfriend play video games. Then Jane meets Farley and she begins to participate in life again and confronting the things pulling her down.
I'm a little bit undecided about this book. I found Jane a little bit of a flat character for the most book. Her state of mind throughout most of the book was quite worrying and hard to read. She was very numb and pretty emotionless about everything. And I feel like while this came across well in the story, it did mean the majority of the book was a little bit dreary and dull because it refected Jane's mood. She's dealing with a lot and feels like she's basically taken a step back from everything so she doesn't have to feel everything about her sister's situation, her granddad's death and her general family situation. She's on her own for a lot of the book and I did feel for her a bit and cry out for her parent's to notice that she wasn't quite well either.
I wasn't crazy about Jane's relationship with Farley. It seemed to come on very suddenly and I could never quite work out exactly how much older he was. She was 16 but said he looked around 20 which is a bit of an age gap for a teenage girl in my opinion. I wasn't crazy about their 'meet-cute' either if i can call it that, it was just a tad weird. I think Farley could have possibly been more developed, I felt like we got some snapshots of him and his life and I could have gone deeper.
I wasn't expecting the mental break near the end of the book and Jane's dialogue becomes really fast and crazy and her whirlwind thoughts came across really well. It was obvious she was in trouble and needed help. I'm glad it was dealt with though I was a bit uneasy how she explained she needed to 'rebuild' things with her parents. She was sick, just like Emma, and I feel like they needed to see that a bit clearer, particularly her mom.
Overall, I ended up liking this book a lot more. Would recommend anyone to may have liked the family drama and the 'forgotten sibling' theme of My Sister's Keeper and books that touch on mental illnesses such as depression and bi-polar disorder.
Jane is struggling. Her sister is ill with cancer, her parents are always in the hospital or working and Jane feels numb to it all. She's kipping school and wandering aimlessly around town or watching her boyfriend play video games. Then Jane meets Farley and she begins to participate in life again and confronting the things pulling her down.
I'm a little bit undecided about this book. I found Jane a little bit of a flat character for the most book. Her state of mind throughout most of the book was quite worrying and hard to read. She was very numb and pretty emotionless about everything. And I feel like while this came across well in the story, it did mean the majority of the book was a little bit dreary and dull because it refected Jane's mood. She's dealing with a lot and feels like she's basically taken a step back from everything so she doesn't have to feel everything about her sister's situation, her granddad's death and her general family situation. She's on her own for a lot of the book and I did feel for her a bit and cry out for her parent's to notice that she wasn't quite well either.
I wasn't crazy about Jane's relationship with Farley. It seemed to come on very suddenly and I could never quite work out exactly how much older he was. She was 16 but said he looked around 20 which is a bit of an age gap for a teenage girl in my opinion. I wasn't crazy about their 'meet-cute' either if i can call it that, it was just a tad weird. I think Farley could have possibly been more developed, I felt like we got some snapshots of him and his life and I could have gone deeper.
I wasn't expecting the mental break near the end of the book and Jane's dialogue becomes really fast and crazy and her whirlwind thoughts came across really well. It was obvious she was in trouble and needed help. I'm glad it was dealt with though I was a bit uneasy how she explained she needed to 'rebuild' things with her parents. She was sick, just like Emma, and I feel like they needed to see that a bit clearer, particularly her mom.
Overall, I ended up liking this book a lot more. Would recommend anyone to may have liked the family drama and the 'forgotten sibling' theme of My Sister's Keeper and books that touch on mental illnesses such as depression and bi-polar disorder.
jayathebookworm's review
5.0
Plain Jane is such an amazing book I have not felt so connected to a character in a long time. The way Jane's character was written was just amazing. The story never felt dull or boring. The sister bond between Jane and Emma was just so believable. I really don't know how else to describe this book but if I where to put it in three words it would be. Believable, Heartbreaking, Family-Oriented
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