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literarycrushes's review against another edition
2.0
It’s encouraging (as a writer) to read Leslie Jamison’s first book (& only novel) to see that she BECAME the writer she is - that she too struggled to find her voice, as evidenced by this book.
The writing was still beautiful on a sentence level (it's clear she's always been a great writer). Still, the book read like an edgy Lifetime movie (complete with dramatic alcoholic aunts, young girls with savior complexes, and first cousins repeatedly committing incest that is never commented on??). '
[it may sound rude, but I don’t mean it that way, i'm a LJ stan!]
The writing was still beautiful on a sentence level (it's clear she's always been a great writer). Still, the book read like an edgy Lifetime movie (complete with dramatic alcoholic aunts, young girls with savior complexes, and first cousins repeatedly committing incest that is never commented on??). '
[it may sound rude, but I don’t mean it that way, i'm a LJ stan!]
kgentry4's review against another edition
2.0
This was a book club pick, and while I thought it sounded very interesting, I was fairly disappointed. I wasn't a fan of her writing style (too simplistic?), and the overly depressing nature was just too much, not to mention there were some directions taken that I just felt were not believable.You could probably argue 2.5 stars, but I'm not sure I'm buying. Meh.
nixieknox's review against another edition
3.0
Although the action was very slow, the forward movement was interesting enough to keep me reading.
glendaleereads's review against another edition
3.0
A part of me wants to give this four stars because I really enjoyed reading it but I think there could have been more plot.
The characters were so tragic and I was rooting for them all the way but we did not get that and I always enjoy reading a story that doesn’t always have a redemption in the end or a happy ending .
The characters were so tragic and I was rooting for them all the way but we did not get that and I always enjoy reading a story that doesn’t always have a redemption in the end or a happy ending .
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
Sad & depressing in a lot of ways, but shimmers of hope throughout. You just want Matilda to succeed, at times I ached for it, especially considering the circumstances in which she is found. Recommend.
aleidareads's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Very depressing. Good writing. Kind of lagged at parts. Tilly’s side was more interesting and fleshed out than Stella’s
kjboldon's review against another edition
3.0
This was a tough read. Told from two viewpoints, adrift-in-her-20s Stella, who helps her grandmother to die, then sets out in search of her estranged aunt. And Tillie, the aunt, whose rebelliousness and alcoholism led to the estrangement. There are no happy endings, here, or particularly likeable characters for those who want or need that sort of thing. For me, only Tillie reached three dimensions. Stella was more a cloud of inference I drew from her circumstances, rather than a discernible-to-me character, and since her POV was half the book, I felt this lack deeply.
The many encomiums on the cover and inside note that the writing is beautiful and that Jamison, who has gone on to achieve fame with her essays, is a writer to watch. These are all true. And yet. SO MANY SIMILES. I could feel the writer writing in the background, trying, reaching for beautiful language. And there is plenty of it there! But, and I wrote this about the first novel of another Iowa Writers Workshop grad, when they're this thick on the ground, the really great ones don't stand out. On page 130, anesthesia is compared to a serious conversation after several glasses of wine, then something compared to tree roots, then pain like sutures with seams and a drawstring. The figurative language, to me, after a while, felt exhausting.
In the end, though, the relationship between Tillie and Stella, and the complicated emotions, drew me through to the very end. Here's Tillie, on p 187: "But the times me and Stella fought were good ones, in their way. Like she took me seriously. This was what happened when lives got close and tangled."
If you like complicated, messy characters and complex relationships between women, this has a lot to offer.
Also, the cover, of a headless young woman sitting on the floor in an undergarment, is terrible.
The many encomiums on the cover and inside note that the writing is beautiful and that Jamison, who has gone on to achieve fame with her essays, is a writer to watch. These are all true. And yet. SO MANY SIMILES. I could feel the writer writing in the background, trying, reaching for beautiful language. And there is plenty of it there! But, and I wrote this about the first novel of another Iowa Writers Workshop grad, when they're this thick on the ground, the really great ones don't stand out. On page 130, anesthesia is compared to a serious conversation after several glasses of wine, then something compared to tree roots, then pain like sutures with seams and a drawstring. The figurative language, to me, after a while, felt exhausting.
In the end, though, the relationship between Tillie and Stella, and the complicated emotions, drew me through to the very end. Here's Tillie, on p 187: "But the times me and Stella fought were good ones, in their way. Like she took me seriously. This was what happened when lives got close and tangled."
If you like complicated, messy characters and complex relationships between women, this has a lot to offer.
Also, the cover, of a headless young woman sitting on the floor in an undergarment, is terrible.
a_calame's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
claudiakarmina's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mfconvery's review against another edition
1.0
This debut was a melodramatic piling on of every disfunction the author could conjure. Additionally, the characters were not simply unlikeable but also unbelievable and underdeveloped.