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A review by marthamaereads
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
3.0
2.5 stars for this one.
When I first began reading this, I thought for sure it would be a 4 star read for me. However, about 1/3 of the way through I began to lose all connection to the main characters, which made me lose interest in the story itself.
I struggled to connect with Suzette (Little) which was a bummer as I liked her character overall. I am personally not familiar with the struggle of sexuality, so I cannot speak on how the portrayal of that aspect of Suzette's character is, but it still made me sad to think about people experiencing that in real life. I thought that her struggle was handled in a mature way, and it didn't seem to trivialise or stigmatise it in any way.
I wish we would have seen a bit more of Lion, but I felt that the parts we did experience with him were extremely important. His relationship with Suzette was written extremely well, and reminded me of my relationship with my sisters. The interactions between the two felt real and raw, and I appreciated that Colbert was able to present that relationship so well.
The (pseudo) between Suzette, Lion and the girl they both like REALLY annoyed me. I felt it was extremely unnecessary to Suzette's character development and made the book seem like every other YA contemporary plot. I feel this is another reason I disconnected with the book, but it is what it is.
Even though I didn't LOVE this book, there were things I loved about the book. I loved how Colbert handled the diagnosis of the bipolar II disorder. It was explained extremely accurately and was presented in a way that made it feel real and not stigmatised. At points in the story, the description of symptoms Lion was experiencing did become extremely textbook, but I felt this was necessary to help people with no educational (or personal) understanding of the disorder to get a grasp of the seriousness. Colbert handled the way in which bipolar affects not only the patient, but those closest to them, so gracefully, and I couldn't have asked for it to be handled in any better way.
All in all, this was a decent read. I would recommend it to people who are into the genre, and also to people looking to understand the affects of mental illness more.
When I first began reading this, I thought for sure it would be a 4 star read for me. However, about 1/3 of the way through I began to lose all connection to the main characters, which made me lose interest in the story itself.
I struggled to connect with Suzette (Little) which was a bummer as I liked her character overall. I am personally not familiar with the struggle of sexuality, so I cannot speak on how the portrayal of that aspect of Suzette's character is, but it still made me sad to think about people experiencing that in real life. I thought that her struggle was handled in a mature way, and it didn't seem to trivialise or stigmatise it in any way.
I wish we would have seen a bit more of Lion, but I felt that the parts we did experience with him were extremely important. His relationship with Suzette was written extremely well, and reminded me of my relationship with my sisters. The interactions between the two felt real and raw, and I appreciated that Colbert was able to present that relationship so well.
The (pseudo) between Suzette, Lion and the girl they both like REALLY annoyed me. I felt it was extremely unnecessary to Suzette's character development and made the book seem like every other YA contemporary plot. I feel this is another reason I disconnected with the book, but it is what it is.
Even though I didn't LOVE this book, there were things I loved about the book. I loved how Colbert handled the diagnosis of the bipolar II disorder. It was explained extremely accurately and was presented in a way that made it feel real and not stigmatised. At points in the story, the description of symptoms Lion was experiencing did become extremely textbook, but I felt this was necessary to help people with no educational (or personal) understanding of the disorder to get a grasp of the seriousness. Colbert handled the way in which bipolar affects not only the patient, but those closest to them, so gracefully, and I couldn't have asked for it to be handled in any better way.
All in all, this was a decent read. I would recommend it to people who are into the genre, and also to people looking to understand the affects of mental illness more.