jamgrl's Reviews (197)

Cute but shallow and preachy

This is a cute and simplistic book. It was entertaining enough, which is what I was looking for.

My big problem: Nowhere in the description did it say this was a christian book (I was unfamiliar with the author) and this wouldn't have bothered me except that the passages masquerading as deep insights about faith were actually incredibly shallow. Everyone in the book had the exact same understanding of God and what is worse, the characters constantly undermined people who didn't share that understanding. Its obvious that the author had a very clear message about faith, and to me that was unsettling.

This is such a sweet story! Full of twists and turns, this book keeps you on your toes- sometimes a little ridiculous, but full of real emotions and fun wit.

There's not much to say, this book is so widely beloved for a reason. One wild thing in rereading it now, with a more critical lens, is that I found that I don't like Mr. Bennet, actually, and Mrs. Bennet isn't so bad! The authorial intent is obvious, but it was fun pushing against that and taking a bit of a harder look at this book and the characters in my book club.

It is really hard for me to get into long form high fantasy like this with all of the time spent on dense world building, but I wanted to read this book. I listened to the audiobook and it was incredible! It didn’t make me want to finish the trilogy, but I was able to get into the book in a way I never had previously. It was especially nice that the pages of ballads were actually sung by the reader, so I got to experience them rather than have that feeling of my eyes glazing over and wanting to skip them that I usually got trying to read the book. I know this series is beloved! And I feel like thanks to the audiobook I got to understand it more.

I absolutely loved this book. It was powerful and moving and made me think a lot. It’s not about hiking, not really, so if you are looking for a book about how to through hike, this isn’t it. This is about grief and and identity and picking up your broken pieces. Cheryl Strayed does an incredible job of opening up her audience to her mind and emotions. As a woman in my early twenties, this really spoke to me as I was (in my much less intense way) discovering how to come into my own.

This book holds up the test of time! It is a blend of sci fi and fantasy, which is fun, and it has a girl protagonist, which was super rare for sci fi books when it was published! I thought a lot about the Cold War and how that could have been influencing the book as I read it- it has strong themes of the importance of individuality/nonconformity and the dangers of the surveillance state.

The thing that stuck out to me was a that the hero was deeply flawed and, in many ways, unremarkable. But it was in her flaws that she could become the hero. The three main characters also read as neurodivergent for me, and I think neurodivergent kids would have a lot to relate to with them. (For example, I think the protagonist, Meg, has ADHD.)

Overall, with all the fantastical and sci fi elements, the core of this story is about what it means to be human, and it is extra cool to read something about humanity that still rings true over 50 years later!