A Rare One Star Review

(Disclaimer: This is a review written less than 5 minutes after finishing the book so it is not articulate as I would normally like my reviews to be. I may rewrite it later when I can stand to think about this book without vomiting.)

This books is a bad Spanish novella that decided to cram everything into two episodes to save money.

The first half was actually more 2 stars for me. It was frustrating that the characters were so flat and everything was rushed without details. The sex that was present in every conversation irked me, but I understood the author was trying to stay true to the book The Picture of Dorian Gray which Doreen was based on. Oscar Wilde would be appalled to see what has been done.

I try to be kind to books, so I am going to be generous and say this was 1.5 star book for me, which only means I have read worse. After reading another reader's review I thought the second half of the book would be better, but it wasn’t.

The closest I came to relating to a character throughout the entire novel was when Heidi was betrayed. I didn’t care about any of their exaggerated and dramatic back stories. I didn’t care about the caricatures that never progressed.

I went to put the book down so many times, but I kept hoping that a line, a scene, anything would wash the bad taste this book left in my mouth.

Doreen, supposedly the center of this story was unbelievable and I didn’t care what happened to her.

Heidi, repelled me with her lack of morals rather than fascinated me. She was too extreme to be interesting. None of her secrets were ever fully revealed or clarified (and they were honestly the only reason I kept reading) and she was just an idiot.

Biz, I couldn’t even like the “nice girl” because she never did anything. Sure she was an artistic afterthought, but she contributed nothing to the story but the picture.

Which leads me to how forced the parallels between the origin book and this remake feels. This book had no originality. There was nothing added to the story, only taken away. Please, do not read this book.

Comments

"Rebel Belle"

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Vengeance Road

I devoured this book! Why? Because it is paced extremely well and I actually cared about what happened in the end. From the first word this book pulls you in as it describes the tragic scene of the murder of the main character’s father. The lead, Kate, is a hard character to get close to, but I guess that remains true to her tough gun-slinging cowgirl exterior. We meet her in a time of great distress and her thoughts tend towards narrow and feverish in her quest to avenge her father, hence the title. The few supporting characters were likable and fit in with the landscape of the book. Jesse and Will were immediate favorites of mine as Kate fell into their unlikely hands. They felt like brothers and that is sometimes a hard relationship to portray (or maybe I am just picky because I have four of them!). Even the memories shared of characters such as her mother and father seem sincere. My one complaint is more a matter of personal preference than true dislike and that ...

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

OK, before anyone judges my harsh review of this much beloved book, I have to defend my two star review. My first complaint is the voice. I have grown up in a family of 8 children, I have many cousins with young children whom I am close to, I babysit, and I am generally very familiar with children. This book felt like it was going between the voice of a two and twenty year old. That took away from the story to me. I am also well travelled and have German family. The Holocaust has long fascinated me and I still have memories of visiting concentration camps at a young age and being physically ill over what I learned and saw. One of my favorite movies is La Vita é Bella (please watch it). This book did not line up with a lot of the history of WWII that I have read. Also, the extreme ignorance of the main character is unbelievable. The concept is good and I feel like putting children in the context of some of the world's greatest tragedies is a powerful tool, I just felt ...

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