As always, Mary Oliver's writing is lovely. This collection didn't resonate with me as much as some of her others, but I still really liked it.

I thought this was a really fun idea — a book of letters about letters — but the execution fell flat. Fundamentally I disagree with the implication that stuffy/stilted language is more "elevated" so I may have been predisposed to dislike the writing style, but I also thought that

Spoiler

the switch to creative spellings toward the end, when I guess too many letters have been lost to just avoid them

was a bit of a cop-out, in addition to giving me a headache to parse; it was cute and somewhat symbolic to have

Spoiler

LMNOP and Ella Minnow Pea be the last letters/person left

but the pacing seemed a bit dragged out to make it happen since I had spotted

Spoiler

the pangram in Ella's dad's letter: Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs

when it appeared, long before

Spoiler

Ella discovers it and acts on it

.

Overall this was a primarily concept-driven book, so there wasn't much in the way of character development or relationships, or a strong sense of atmosphere/setting, to make up for the aforementioned areas of disappointment. I wouldn't say I regret spending the time to read this, but I don't think I'd reread or really recommend it.

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CONVERSION: 6 / 15 = 2 stars

Prose: 3 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 2 / 10
Emotional Impact: 3 / 10
Development / Flow: 2 / 10
Setting: 5 / 10

Intellectual Engagement: 2 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 4 / 5

★ 1.5 stars ★

Meh. I checked this out because I kept seeing it mentioned but didn't find it particularly thrilling or mysterious. The alternating POV structure, I felt, gave too much away too soon; the characters were pretty boilerplate archetypes (including the autistic character, whose portrayal I particularly disliked in part because she was treated more like a plot device than a person); the escape room aspect — which for me was the main selling point — quickly fell by the wayside.

3.5 stars

RTC.

Recommended by Jess @ Crowing About Books.

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CONVERSION: 10.4 / 15 = 3.5 stars

Prose: 5 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 9 / 10
Emotional Impact: 4 / 10
Development / Flow: 8 / 10
Setting: 8 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 4 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 2 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 4 / 5
Rereadability: 4 / 5
Memorability: 4 / 5

1.5 stars

I probably would've liked this a lot more if I'd read it when I was closer to Margaret's age, or even younger - though at the same time I'd hesitate to recommend it to a girl that age, because a lot of the themes are either outdated or so subtle that I think I would've misinterpreted them.

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CONVERSION: 4.3 / 15 = 1.5 stars

Prose: 4 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 5 / 10
Emotional Impact: 1 / 10
Development / Flow: 4 / 10
Setting: 2 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: N/A
Intellectual Engagement: 2 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 1 / 5
Rereadability: N/A
Memorability: 1 / 5

(Read for my "Intro to 21st Century Literature" class.)

I really wish I could've DNF'd this, because it was absolutely not for me. While it's loaded with the exact right kind of allusion, metaphor, and symbolism to make it a good discussion topic for an English/literature class, I totally failed to develop an emotional attachment to any of the characters at any point in the story.

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CONVERSION: 5.35 / 15 = 2 stars

Prose: 2 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 4 / 10
Emotional Impact: 2 / 10
Development / Flow: 5 / 10
Setting: 5 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 2 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: N/A
Rereadability: 1 / 5
Memorability: 1 / 5

This really didn't need to be so long or packed; the primary reason I even made it to the end was because I'd already invested in the series and I knew I was close to the end. (I know, I know, sunk cost fallacy. But still.)

Plot-wise I guess it was satisfying enough? I didn't like the multiple timeskips — it seemed like there was one at the end of every chapter for the first few chapters. And relative to the first two books, parts of the plot seemed to come out of nowhere, which probably added to how much was stuffed into this book. There were so many subplots that it felt fragmented, like certain arcs were put on hold until they were useful again, and it really only came together at the very end.

I felt like the characters were flatter than ever. And initially I was excited to see that an LGBTQIA+ major character had been introduced, but I didn't like the way their gender and sexual identity was portrayed:

Spoiler

like it all came from being raised without a gender identity (so all Madagascans are genderqueer and pansexual), and it was a matter of simply choosing to be male or female based on the weather, and that being bi/pan comes from a rejection of the gender binary

. It probably bothers me even more because they're the only non-cishet character that we meet, so their identity is our only insight into how it's viewed in this world.

Also, the romances still felt like an afterthought.

[review to be continued]

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CONVERSION: 5.5 / 15 = 2 stars

Prose: 3 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 4 / 10
Emotional Impact: 2 / 10
Development / Flow: 4 / 10
Setting: 7 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 2 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 1 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 2 / 5
Rereadability: 1 / 5
Memorability: N/A

★ 3.5 stars ★

If I were to describe this in one word, it would be colorful, somewhat in the euphemestic sense but not entirely pejorative — the language, portrayals of individuals, and included anecdotes all fit that description; it's very much not PC or PG. I can definitely see why this is so popular: it's entertaining and dramatic, but still relatively accessible for the average reader.

My favorite chapter is

Spoiler

"Bryan," where Bourdain talks about his respect for Scott Bryan even though literally everything they do is opposed in principle

; I respect that Bourdain can acknowledge that he's wrong — he explicitly says that he's wrong, not hedging that he "might not be totally right"! — and, despite his (arguably well-earned) confidence, his way isnt the only way.