Take a photo of a barcode or cover
readingwordsmith's Reviews (203)
This is the second book I read in 2020! I decided to read it because I really just wanted to try reading an Audible Original. I appreciated what the audiobook was trying to do, but it wasn’t my favorite. Overall, I thought that it was interesting to see a world run by women (sort of like a reverse patriarchy). But, there was nothing special about this book.
Content Warnings: Death, Illness (Cancer), Abandonment
Spoiler-Free Review:
I picked this book on a whim during this 24 hour readathon. I’d been desperate to try another Backman book after loving And Every Morning the Way Homes Gets Longer and Longer. But, I was really disappointed by this short novella and how it turned out. It was also a good choice since this book was only 65 pages I think so it didn’t take me long to read at all.
I really loved the themes that Backman tackled especially those relating to death, ilness, and abandonment. I think this is definitely the strongest point of all his works and something he’s really mastered well. He always makes readers think about heavy issues very deeply, giving plenty food for thought in his books which I greatly appreciate.
I especially loved how he goes over how abandoning a child is like disappearing from their life as if you never existed. You really get to dive in and understand this from the perspective of a father who has abandoned his child. In the story, the act of disappearing is given a bit of a magical element making it seem more like an act like death which I thought was an interesting take. Really, this child who by this point is a grown man has been shaped and influenced by other people and it’s like his father never existed in his life which I think was the point with this disappearance theme/plot line.
Another great theme in this book is that of illness and death and especially just how unfair life and death really are. It really talks about how some people always seem to live on while all these other people around them seem to get sick and die. I think the most heartbreaking part was the discussion of sick and dying children, especially those who have some form of cancer. It’s very unfair and unjust that these children who are so young are going through such serious and terrible things. They have so much life left to live and that’s the saddest part of all.
One of the things that really annoyed me about this story was the character development and I especially disliked the main character. He was just so cold, calculating, and mean. I think he was meant to be a highly unlikeable character so I think Backman definitely did a good job with this. I couldn’t stand his character throughout and there really was no growth in him which was frustrating to say the least. Also, what kind of a person are you if you just abandon your child?? Not putting the child up for adoption, but just straight up abandoning/leaving them!
Rating: 3/5 ⭐️
Title: The Deal of a Lifetime
Author: Fredrik Backman
Translator: Alice Menzies
Publisher: Atria Books/Simon and Schuster
Spoiler-Free Review:
I picked this book on a whim during this 24 hour readathon. I’d been desperate to try another Backman book after loving And Every Morning the Way Homes Gets Longer and Longer. But, I was really disappointed by this short novella and how it turned out. It was also a good choice since this book was only 65 pages I think so it didn’t take me long to read at all.
I really loved the themes that Backman tackled especially those relating to death, ilness, and abandonment. I think this is definitely the strongest point of all his works and something he’s really mastered well. He always makes readers think about heavy issues very deeply, giving plenty food for thought in his books which I greatly appreciate.
I especially loved how he goes over how abandoning a child is like disappearing from their life as if you never existed. You really get to dive in and understand this from the perspective of a father who has abandoned his child. In the story, the act of disappearing is given a bit of a magical element making it seem more like an act like death which I thought was an interesting take. Really, this child who by this point is a grown man has been shaped and influenced by other people and it’s like his father never existed in his life which I think was the point with this disappearance theme/plot line.
Another great theme in this book is that of illness and death and especially just how unfair life and death really are. It really talks about how some people always seem to live on while all these other people around them seem to get sick and die. I think the most heartbreaking part was the discussion of sick and dying children, especially those who have some form of cancer. It’s very unfair and unjust that these children who are so young are going through such serious and terrible things. They have so much life left to live and that’s the saddest part of all.
One of the things that really annoyed me about this story was the character development and I especially disliked the main character. He was just so cold, calculating, and mean. I think he was meant to be a highly unlikeable character so I think Backman definitely did a good job with this. I couldn’t stand his character throughout and there really was no growth in him which was frustrating to say the least. Also, what kind of a person are you if you just abandon your child?? Not putting the child up for adoption, but just straight up abandoning/leaving them!
Rating: 3/5 ⭐️
Title: The Deal of a Lifetime
Author: Fredrik Backman
Translator: Alice Menzies
Publisher: Atria Books/Simon and Schuster
Synopsis:
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys follows two main characters’ POVs: Daniel who is an American visiting Spain during the Franco regime and Ana, a native Spanish girl living with the aftermath/consequences of the Spanish Civil War. They meet when Daniel and his family stay at the hotel that Ana works at. During his stay, certain truths about life under Franco’s dictatorship are revealed. Things in Spain are not like what the government would like the Americans to think!
Review:
Honestly, I was quite disappointed by this book. The looming threat of Francisco Franco and his regime did not seem to be fully explored throughout the story. It felt like nothing really happened or really changed throughout the story which I found to be quite frustrating! The characters seemed very one-note and did not appear to have any sort of growth or development throughout the story. And I really felt like Part 2 of the story was quite unnecessary and the ending, in general, was just really perplexing.
Throughout the story, it always just felt like the writer was really just telling us about how bad things were in Spain under a dictatorship rather than showing us. Sepetys describes some of the atrocities that occurred at this time in Spain but we never really get to explore it in the setting or see these things happening in real-time. One thing I thought was pretty cool was how she included a little bit of mixed media in the book with these radio recordings/quotes of people who had actually visited the hotel that the fictional Ana worked at and Daniel had stayed at.
I liked the characters at first a lot. I thought Daniel was a type of character that I had seen a lot before in other novels but I didn't mind that too much. Ana seemed interesting and I really felt like her character had quite a bit of potential, I just don't think that Ruta Sepetys developed the characters as much as she could have. It just felt like the characters didn't grow or learn from the experiences which was a bit disappointing. I think what really ended up bothering me was the fact that the characters hadn't really changed all the much in Part 2 which occurred YEARS after the main part of the story took place!
I don't want to delve into spoilers on this review, but that ending was super odd and confusing. I understand that Sepetys was just trying to show the repercussions of a dictatorship and how Civil War continues to affect people's lives generations later, but it just felt a bit too convenient, too perfect for my liking. Ruta Sepetys really wanted to bring attention to the fact that thousands of children were taken from their parents and put for adoption because their parents had been part of the rebellion against Franco.
I would definitely love to learn more about this, but, I think I will seek out non-fiction, historical accounts in the future. The little bits of history and nonfictional elements included at the end I thought were quite interesting and helpful. I think that if this story had been nonfiction instead of fiction I would've found it more interesting! I didn't really care for any of the fictional elements of this book but I was fascinated by the history that the story was inspired by. Overall, I'm sad to say that I didn't really enjoy this story, if you're looking for a fictional account of life under a dictatorship, I highly recommend that you read In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez instead!
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys follows two main characters’ POVs: Daniel who is an American visiting Spain during the Franco regime and Ana, a native Spanish girl living with the aftermath/consequences of the Spanish Civil War. They meet when Daniel and his family stay at the hotel that Ana works at. During his stay, certain truths about life under Franco’s dictatorship are revealed. Things in Spain are not like what the government would like the Americans to think!
Review:
Honestly, I was quite disappointed by this book. The looming threat of Francisco Franco and his regime did not seem to be fully explored throughout the story. It felt like nothing really happened or really changed throughout the story which I found to be quite frustrating! The characters seemed very one-note and did not appear to have any sort of growth or development throughout the story. And I really felt like Part 2 of the story was quite unnecessary and the ending, in general, was just really perplexing.
Throughout the story, it always just felt like the writer was really just telling us about how bad things were in Spain under a dictatorship rather than showing us. Sepetys describes some of the atrocities that occurred at this time in Spain but we never really get to explore it in the setting or see these things happening in real-time. One thing I thought was pretty cool was how she included a little bit of mixed media in the book with these radio recordings/quotes of people who had actually visited the hotel that the fictional Ana worked at and Daniel had stayed at.
I liked the characters at first a lot. I thought Daniel was a type of character that I had seen a lot before in other novels but I didn't mind that too much. Ana seemed interesting and I really felt like her character had quite a bit of potential, I just don't think that Ruta Sepetys developed the characters as much as she could have. It just felt like the characters didn't grow or learn from the experiences which was a bit disappointing. I think what really ended up bothering me was the fact that the characters hadn't really changed all the much in Part 2 which occurred YEARS after the main part of the story took place!
I don't want to delve into spoilers on this review, but that ending was super odd and confusing. I understand that Sepetys was just trying to show the repercussions of a dictatorship and how Civil War continues to affect people's lives generations later, but it just felt a bit too convenient, too perfect for my liking. Ruta Sepetys really wanted to bring attention to the fact that thousands of children were taken from their parents and put for adoption because their parents had been part of the rebellion against Franco.
I would definitely love to learn more about this, but, I think I will seek out non-fiction, historical accounts in the future. The little bits of history and nonfictional elements included at the end I thought were quite interesting and helpful. I think that if this story had been nonfiction instead of fiction I would've found it more interesting! I didn't really care for any of the fictional elements of this book but I was fascinated by the history that the story was inspired by. Overall, I'm sad to say that I didn't really enjoy this story, if you're looking for a fictional account of life under a dictatorship, I highly recommend that you read In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez instead!
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Wow, this book was so sweet and adorable! I thought about doing a full dedicated review for it, but the graphic novel was so short that I would just be spoiling it! I definitely recommend you check out this graphic novel it was so sweet
