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A review by tobyyy
A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White
1.0
Ugh, I feel bad for rating a book so low, but this just had so many problems with it.
It was supposed to be a story of 2 sisters dealing with the loss of both of their parents at a fairly young age (Julia was in her mid-teens and Ruthie was 12 or 13, if I'm remembering correctly).
But really, there were more questions left unanswered than the book answered. Here's a list of a just a few questions that I had upon finishing the book:
- What was the point of even bringing up Julia's having been at The Center?
- Why did we not hear more about Julia's life in the latter half of the book?
- Why did Gabe's conversion to Catholicism (from Judaism) garner such a huge discussion when it really had NOTHING to do with ANYTHING in the rest of the book?
- What happened with Gabe and Ruthie after the end of the book?
- Why was there such a huge discussion at the end about Ruthie and Gabe having a baby? (There was never ANY follow-up to that discussion)
- Why was there excruciating detail about everything in the first third (or so) of the book, and then for the rest of the book, nothing?
- Why didn't the book flow well? why did the author see fit to jump around in time?
- What the HELL happened to the letters/journals that Ruthie got from Evelyn? and what was the POINT of the letter to Julia from Naomi?!
ARGH. So many questions, and SO MANY MORE than that!
I don't think I've been this infuriated by a single book in quite awhile. Disappointed? Yes. Annoyed? Yes. But infuriated because it feels like the ending was rushed and lots of answers just... not supplied? NO. Not to this degree. Ugh. I was hoping that this would be a good book but it ended up leaving me with way more questions than answers (obviously).
That being said, I may (may) be willing to give White another chance because I did like her writing style. The jumping ahead in time didn't bother me too much and her writing is decent. It's just there was no wrapping up done, for so many of the "plot points."
GRRRR.
It was supposed to be a story of 2 sisters dealing with the loss of both of their parents at a fairly young age (Julia was in her mid-teens and Ruthie was 12 or 13, if I'm remembering correctly).
But really, there were more questions left unanswered than the book answered. Here's a list of a just a few questions that I had upon finishing the book:
- What was the point of even bringing up Julia's having been at The Center?
- Why did we not hear more about Julia's life in the latter half of the book?
- Why did Gabe's conversion to Catholicism (from Judaism) garner such a huge discussion when it really had NOTHING to do with ANYTHING in the rest of the book?
- What happened with Gabe and Ruthie after the end of the book?
- Why was there such a huge discussion at the end about Ruthie and Gabe having a baby? (There was never ANY follow-up to that discussion)
- Why was there excruciating detail about everything in the first third (or so) of the book, and then for the rest of the book, nothing?
- Why didn't the book flow well? why did the author see fit to jump around in time?
- What the HELL happened to the letters/journals that Ruthie got from Evelyn? and what was the POINT of the letter to Julia from Naomi?!
ARGH. So many questions, and SO MANY MORE than that!
I don't think I've been this infuriated by a single book in quite awhile. Disappointed? Yes. Annoyed? Yes. But infuriated because it feels like the ending was rushed and lots of answers just... not supplied? NO. Not to this degree. Ugh. I was hoping that this would be a good book but it ended up leaving me with way more questions than answers (obviously).
That being said, I may (may) be willing to give White another chance because I did like her writing style. The jumping ahead in time didn't bother me too much and her writing is decent. It's just there was no wrapping up done, for so many of the "plot points."
GRRRR.