so-soThe book felt more enjoyable after thinking that it was told from the perspective of a mentally I‘ll character. I don‘t mean that badly, as someone who has Asperger‘s. The story is very quirky, and Helen is a terrible investigator into the cause of her adoptive brother‘s suicide. It was interesting that the novel did not use any quotation marks for people speaking.
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Before & After.
This was as good as Before we were yours. Touching stories from real life adoptees & children of the adoptees. What happened, what they think happened & what they learn from searching for documents and DNA findings. #georgiatann #beforewewereyours #beforeandafter #reallifestories #adoptee
pickHelen Moran is difficult to be around, alternately highly empathetic and completely clueless about other people's perspectives, but I like her. She reminds me a little of beginning-of-the-novel Eleanor Oliphant, but I like Helen better. Her growth is more realistic and nuanced than Eleanor's. This novel feels like a truthful depiction of the experience of living with mental illness. Longer review on my blog, if you're interested.
Audiowalking with this odd little book (tagged) and some clouds that are quite satisfactory.
pan#booked2019 @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage finished this book, my "reminds you of your happy place" choice because it occurs in Milwaukee, where I grew up.
I didn't feel the book really knew what it was trying to be. Mystery? Family study? Commentary on adoption, racism, and mental illness? And I felt the ending fit poorly with the story. But that might just be me.
I wish I could say I snorted with laughter, or cheered, but what I really did was let loose a grunt like a rhinoceros, from a diaphragm spasm, at the shock of insight this afforded me. #superattractive #readwoc #booked2019
bailedI barely got through 40 pages of this pretentious crap before I wanted to tear it into pieces. The name thing that I mentioned before was annoying enough. But the writing itself was painfully ridiculous and try-hard. It was like stream of consciousness but from a robot that was fed a combination of kids books and college philosophy term papers. And maybe someone also spilled cocaine on the robot‘s motherboard. HARD NOPE. GOODBYE. 👋🏻🖕🏻
Uh-oh, this does annoying name stuff. The narrator‘s roommate is referred to as “my roommate Julie” every single time. And flipping ahead, I see she refers to her parents as “my adoptive parents/mother/father” every time, too. Uuuuuuuugggghhhhhh whhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I‘ll keep going but already that‘s gonna knock the rating down.
This doesn‘t have great ratings on Litsy or Goodreads, but there‘s something about it that is still really drawing me to it. And hey, it‘s only 265 pages, so if it sucks, it‘ll only be half as annoying as Manhattan Beach 😜 #nowreading
