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bebocarrick 's review for:
Beautiful Little Furies: Compelling Women's Psychological Fiction
by Laurel Osterkamp
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
To say I am not a fan would be an understatement. As a high school English teacher, I had such high hopes for a book about a high school English teacher WRITTEN by a high school English teacher. Unfortunately, this book fell short in so many ways.
1. The writing was CLUNKY. The golden rule of "show don't tell" felt completely ignored. I was told every. single, little. thing. This was especially apparent in the first few chapters. They felt like the biggest infodump and I seriously thought about putting the book down as early as chapter 2. Unfortunately, this didn't get much better.
2. The plot twists were gimmicky, obvious, and made me want to scream with how unrealistic they felt. I know books require some suspension of disbelief, but as a trained teacher, Hazel's actions "for the sake of the students" were incomprehensible. The publishing of the school magazine with a wildly risky story? The going to a students' house to check up on her? The telling the office secretary to basically fuck off? WHAT??Not only this, but the big reveal about Vance's affair partner was something I saw coming a mile away, and I don't consider myself particularly good at spotting plot twists either.
3. The story screams white saviorism. It is over the top and sickly how Hazel talks about her minority students as if they are incapable of taking care of themselves. It is important to give a voice to minority students, but talking about it in front of them CONSTANTLY and making comments about protecting them is so icky and feels very performative. Not to mention the whole Febe situation at the end of the book.
4. Related to point 1, but slightly different: the dialogue felt overly dramatic and like nothing actual people would say. Having taught AP English, I can pretty much guarantee that most of the kiddos are NOT going to make such insightful comments, but somehow most of the AP Lit kids in this book understood the book to the same level as their teacher? Wild. The weird stuck-in literary references (by students, nonetheless) didn't help the dialogue at all.
All this to say, I disliked this book from both the perspective of a reader and as a teacher. The writing was not fun to read and I couldn't suspend my disbelief about the main character's actions because they go against so many things teachers know to do. It made this book so hard and frustrating to read, and I leave it incredibly disappointed.
Publication date: Dec 20, 2023
To say I am not a fan would be an understatement. As a high school English teacher, I had such high hopes for a book about a high school English teacher WRITTEN by a high school English teacher. Unfortunately, this book fell short in so many ways.
1. The writing was CLUNKY. The golden rule of "show don't tell" felt completely ignored. I was told every. single, little. thing. This was especially apparent in the first few chapters. They felt like the biggest infodump and I seriously thought about putting the book down as early as chapter 2. Unfortunately, this didn't get much better.
2. The plot twists were gimmicky, obvious, and made me want to scream with how unrealistic they felt. I know books require some suspension of disbelief, but as a trained teacher, Hazel's actions "for the sake of the students" were incomprehensible. The publishing of the school magazine with a wildly risky story? The going to a students' house to check up on her? The telling the office secretary to basically fuck off? WHAT??Not only this, but the big reveal about Vance's affair partner was something I saw coming a mile away, and I don't consider myself particularly good at spotting plot twists either.
3. The story screams white saviorism. It is over the top and sickly how Hazel talks about her minority students as if they are incapable of taking care of themselves. It is important to give a voice to minority students, but talking about it in front of them CONSTANTLY and making comments about protecting them is so icky and feels very performative. Not to mention the whole Febe situation at the end of the book.
4. Related to point 1, but slightly different: the dialogue felt overly dramatic and like nothing actual people would say. Having taught AP English, I can pretty much guarantee that most of the kiddos are NOT going to make such insightful comments, but somehow most of the AP Lit kids in this book understood the book to the same level as their teacher? Wild. The weird stuck-in literary references (by students, nonetheless) didn't help the dialogue at all.
All this to say, I disliked this book from both the perspective of a reader and as a teacher. The writing was not fun to read and I couldn't suspend my disbelief about the main character's actions because they go against so many things teachers know to do. It made this book so hard and frustrating to read, and I leave it incredibly disappointed.
Publication date: Dec 20, 2023