Thursday, October 13, 2011

This Beautiful Life, Helen Schulman

Average Rating: 5.6
Menu: PF Chang's Extravaganza! 


Angie: 6 - Really only read about 60% of the book and skimmed the rest.  Was more sexual than expected.  Relavant topic, but not well written.


Rebecca: 6 - Interesting story but could have been executed better.  Didn't like writing style.  Tried too hard to write "golden sentences" but didn't work well.


Dana: 5.5 - Character development was inconsistent making it difficult to grasp characters' personalities except for the youngest daughter.  Important topic for parents, but seemed like student writing.


Anne: 5 - Character development was poor.  Felt ending was not tied up and had too many loose ends.  Difficult to relate to characters over long term with lots of tangents and inconsistency in characters' actions and decisions.  Important topic, but didn't feel there was a concise message or lesson.  Not well written.


Tina: 5 - Intrigued by topic but was not well executed at all.  Storyline and character development felt very choppy and inconsistent.  Perhaps this is realistic to how people would react to such a difficult situation, but it did not make for a good story.


Jennifer: 6.5 - The book started our slowly and did not grab my attention.  It seemed semi unrealistic how the Daisy parents were acting before the incident and completely out of her life.    It did show though how easy it is just to forward 1 e-mail or message on and how it can spread so quickly.  It is important to watch what you write down because it might be sent off anywhere. 


Becky: 5.5 - Unfortunately, I kept waiting for it to get interesting.  I wanted more from it.  I liked the overall message of the book, just felt it could have been told in about 200 less pages.  I think it was the authors intent, but I liked the characters less as the book went on.  Perhaps its one that I will think of later....which usually indicates a good book.