hermusings's Reviews (303)

This was a hard read.

This book is an artful story centered around Pecola, a young black girl whose life is woeful and harsh. Morrison explores the generational impact on the racial self-loathing of Pecola. She does a thorough job by diving deep into Pecola’s family AND the generational effect that created her bullies and friends. Her attempt at grounding the people around Pecola and the town were wonderfully executed through the multiple POVs throughout the book. There are so many layers of this story that were personally confronting and stories that are far too real. 

However, I agree with Morrison that this book conveys pity for Pecola more than understanding of how she is the most vulnerable person in society to become a product of both her home and community. I think one too many awful things occur to Pecola. Although none of it is out of the realm of reality, the frequency and progression of these events in this story cause that divide between Morrison’s intention and execution. 

Writing this feels premature as I’m sure I will have more thoughts on this book (which will stay with me for a long time).

It was such a human story in the most absurd way possible. No plot just essentialism — which is infuriating based on the setting and circumstances of the book (I want answers soooo bad). Yet, that too felt sadly human. So many of us die without answers. 

So many themes here: community, experience, culture, desire, knowledge, compassion, etc. 

Harpman must have loved Plato’s allegory of the cave!! Also, finding out her family were placed into concentration camps during WWII brought extra depth to this plot. 

They can place you in “experiments”, strip you of culture and freedom but they cannot take away your humanity. 

I found this endearing, and at times frustrating. I think there were loads of really interesting and complex topics brought up to add depth to the characters & plot, yet we couldn’t truly dive into them due to the length and speed of the book. 

However, I knew this was a novella and overall, enjoyed it.

Engaging from the start! 
I found these characters to be slightly insufferable and annoying but I truly was locked in for the journey this story took me through. It had moments where I couldn’t suspend my disbelief but it delivered on what it sought out to do. 

This book has a wonderful premise (two strangers forced to shelter from a storm together) that lends itself to rely heavily on dialogue. This may have increased my expectations and picture something along the lines of the Before movie series. Unfortunately, the dialogue rarely felt natural or engaging. There were many references to Disney, Star Wars, & Beatles that took me out of the experience. Also, the attempt at creating depth felt like trauma dumping rather. 

However, I can see this being enjoyed by other readers and I look forward to seeing what this author duo bring out in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and 8th Note Press, for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

A honest, comical, cathartic and thoughtful exploration of a breakup. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it as much being from a men’s pov but honestly Dolly Alderton is a tremendously good writer.
However, that last chapter in Jen’s pov was a standout & what I’ll probably be thinking about for a long time!