Cayenne (princesscayenne) reviewed on + 12 more book reviews
I liked this book both more and less than I expected to. For one thing, I never expected to love Jo's work with anything less with my whole heart, and I certainly didn't love this book that much. On the other hand, I did a good job of lowering my expectation's based on the early reviews and the apparently uninteresting plot and this definitely exceeded the expectations I set for myself in that regard.
Barry Fairbrother drops dead and sends the town of Pagford into a whirlwind of small-scale, catty political intrigue. A rainbow of characters, such as the Sikh, doctor Jawandas, their shy, bullied daughter and the Mollison family, including the enormous first citizen, his brusque business partner, and his catty wife. In the end, this is a character and all of them are real and beautiful and easy to hate and to love. Although I could tell that Jo was definitely leading the reader to think certain things about certain characters, I don't think I was always distracted. Some of my favorite characters included Andrew "Arf" Price, a nervous, love-struck and abused teenager. I also loved Gavin, one of the characters I don't think I was supposed to care for. He's mousy, selfish, fearful and generally a jerk, but he seemed honest and afraid and acted the way he did out of blind selfishness rather than malice. And in an interesting twist on the back of Draco, the bad guy who everyone loved despite what Jo wanted, we met the amazing Krystal the bad girl who I certainly loved, clearly in accordance with Jo's intention. I love the way she was carefully made and carefully shown to us so as to really make us love her as opposed to assuming we loved her already and moving forward. The reader's interest in Krystal was crucial to the reader's interest in the entire book. A character of that type, especially a female character of that type, is very hard for me to love. I often find that writer's grossly overdoes them. Krystal is tough! Krystal is street smart! Krystal is protective and mean and aggressive! But it's okay because she's ~tender on the inside~. Jo did this beautifully. She created a perfect tough girl and made us love her without ever once shoving her down our throats. I also enjoyed Howard, who everyone within the novel seemed to hate, but who I found well-meaning and kind, underneath the obnoxious bravado. A character who I think I was meant to like but had no sympathy for was Stuart "Fats" Wall. He seemed needy, whiny, childish and malicious. I just was unimpressed.
All in all, I agree with the vast majority of reviewers here. It was a good novel, not stunning. I would recommend it to a lot of people, but not everyone. If you don't like character studies, slow-paced, simmering novels, this is not the novel for you. The first couple hundred pages might be hard to get through if you aren't interested in this kind of story. If you dislike this kind of story, you will likely never get through this at all. Personally, I loved it.
Barry Fairbrother drops dead and sends the town of Pagford into a whirlwind of small-scale, catty political intrigue. A rainbow of characters, such as the Sikh, doctor Jawandas, their shy, bullied daughter and the Mollison family, including the enormous first citizen, his brusque business partner, and his catty wife. In the end, this is a character and all of them are real and beautiful and easy to hate and to love. Although I could tell that Jo was definitely leading the reader to think certain things about certain characters, I don't think I was always distracted. Some of my favorite characters included Andrew "Arf" Price, a nervous, love-struck and abused teenager. I also loved Gavin, one of the characters I don't think I was supposed to care for. He's mousy, selfish, fearful and generally a jerk, but he seemed honest and afraid and acted the way he did out of blind selfishness rather than malice. And in an interesting twist on the back of Draco, the bad guy who everyone loved despite what Jo wanted, we met the amazing Krystal the bad girl who I certainly loved, clearly in accordance with Jo's intention. I love the way she was carefully made and carefully shown to us so as to really make us love her as opposed to assuming we loved her already and moving forward. The reader's interest in Krystal was crucial to the reader's interest in the entire book. A character of that type, especially a female character of that type, is very hard for me to love. I often find that writer's grossly overdoes them. Krystal is tough! Krystal is street smart! Krystal is protective and mean and aggressive! But it's okay because she's ~tender on the inside~. Jo did this beautifully. She created a perfect tough girl and made us love her without ever once shoving her down our throats. I also enjoyed Howard, who everyone within the novel seemed to hate, but who I found well-meaning and kind, underneath the obnoxious bravado. A character who I think I was meant to like but had no sympathy for was Stuart "Fats" Wall. He seemed needy, whiny, childish and malicious. I just was unimpressed.
All in all, I agree with the vast majority of reviewers here. It was a good novel, not stunning. I would recommend it to a lot of people, but not everyone. If you don't like character studies, slow-paced, simmering novels, this is not the novel for you. The first couple hundred pages might be hard to get through if you aren't interested in this kind of story. If you dislike this kind of story, you will likely never get through this at all. Personally, I loved it.
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