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A review by sarahbethbrown
Blueprints for Building Better Girls: Stories by Elissa Schappell
4.0
I liked this book! I had picked it up over and over again for the past year or so, and then would get distracted and put it down. Happens with this type of books to me a lot-- those about girls and young women, particularly short stories. These linked stories are really interesting-- lots of big issues: rape, eating disorders, love/infatuation, family issues, and handles them with subtlety. Many of the stories are framed as memories, with a character in the present telling her story to somone else, or having it unravel in the narrative as it is paralleled by some action going on in the character's present. I didn't love this, only bc I think it popped up in too many of the stories to be interesting. My favorite stories here are the ones that progress neatly in time-- I'm just not sure Schappell is a gifted enough writer to play with time the way she did in some of the stories. I thought, for the most part, this was a great read, and I didn't really put it down much once I got through the first story.
A couple of things that bothered me that are so nitpicky but just really stuck in my head:
1. These are linked stories, but many of the characters don't put together the connections, which drove me NUTS. The most egregious place where this happened is one woman makes a new best friend, and they tell each other EVERYTHING, except they never make the connection that woman A was in rehab with woman B's sister. Really? They tell each other EVERYTHING except a defining event in each of their lives? unlikely.
2. One story puts a lot of focus on a girl's pearl necklace. It breaks, and the pearls go everywhere. Except that a nice pearl necklace (which she assures us this is) is made so that the pearls don't go everywhere! they are knotted on individually for that very reason! if your pearl necklace breaks, you'll lose one pearl. I don't know why this bothered me SO MUCH, but it really did.
Otherwise, great book. read it!
A couple of things that bothered me that are so nitpicky but just really stuck in my head:
1. These are linked stories, but many of the characters don't put together the connections, which drove me NUTS. The most egregious place where this happened is one woman makes a new best friend, and they tell each other EVERYTHING, except they never make the connection that woman A was in rehab with woman B's sister. Really? They tell each other EVERYTHING except a defining event in each of their lives? unlikely.
2. One story puts a lot of focus on a girl's pearl necklace. It breaks, and the pearls go everywhere. Except that a nice pearl necklace (which she assures us this is) is made so that the pearls don't go everywhere! they are knotted on individually for that very reason! if your pearl necklace breaks, you'll lose one pearl. I don't know why this bothered me SO MUCH, but it really did.
Otherwise, great book. read it!