👶👶: Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo

🙈I know I'm in the minority as far as my distaste for this novel, and I tried to like it, I really did - but I just couldn't do it y'all. 

There were several things that did me in. First of all, there were entirely too many characters for my taste. No sooner would I get to know a character, then I'd have to move on to the next one. This leads me to my second gripe - character development was minimal, at best. I felt no connection to any of the characters, which really bummed me out. 

Something else I took issue with is how the author kept writing lists of everything. Each individual, it seemed, had a list of something or other attached to their individual story: and on, and on, and on, and on... 

Yet another issue: very minimal punctuation- oh for the love of all that is good and holy - how difficult is to use periods properly, I mean really, people🤦‍♀️. For this reason, I tried listening to it instead - but the narrator was so monotone... there was just no way to win with this novel. 

And finally, THERE WAS LITTLE TO NO REDEMPTION FOR ANYONE!!! I hate a story where everything just downright sucks. Their lives were so grim and negativity encompassed it all. At one point there was a positive story, and I was so excited, and then Bam!, something crazy (and downright disturbing) happened in her story. 

So listen, I almost gave it 1 star, but I promised myself I wouldn't do that ever again, because each author put a lot of themselves into their work; and just because I don't love it, doesn't mean it's so awful for everyone else. This is clearly evident with the acclaim this novel has received.

So... I'll just put out the warning to proceed with caution⚠️ and read at your own risk, but 🎶"don't say I didn't, say I didn't warn you🎶."

Read 4/23/21