Book Review #1

Okay.. for my GHEnglish class, we are required to do four talks, reviews or any other projects on at least 4 books that we have ready this year. For me, a book review is sometimes easier. This is a new series I hope to begin on my blog. I want to come up with a creative name for it, but I am not quite there yet. Here is my second official review as my post on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was my first:

One of the first books I read this school year was The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. It is a realistic fiction book that is also a New York Times Bestseller and it has 353 pages. When explaining this book, I should explain how I came to read it first. I had heard about this book on various websites and has seen it on a recommended shelf at my local bookstore. The cover is also very intriguing with it coppery family crest and pale blue-green background.

Upon further inspection, I noticed that the book was reviewed by Amy Poehler, who is one of my favorite female actors and an empowering person in general. I decided that if Amy liked it, I would too.

Did I actually enjoy this book? No, but yes. Again with the contradictions. (As you will soon notice, for a bossy person I am quite indecisive sometimes about my opinions.) I liked the concept of the book which is a family called the Plumbs who are to receive a large sum of inheritance money when the youngest child, Melody, reaches the age of 40. There is some complication with that as the oldest brother, Leo dips into the money to pay for some damage he caused as well as legal fees. I am not going to go any further into that part of the plot in case you plan to read the story, but basically it follows the journey of three of the siblings Melody, Jack, Beatrice as they try to get Leo to pay back the part of the money that he took because they all have their own financial needs. It also follows Leo as he tries to navigate his new life and forgotten bad habits.

One part that was very agitating to me, but understandably necessary was the switching of character perspectives in every chapter. The author cycled through probably about 10 characters as they told their portions of the story. At times it was difficult to keep up with of them. While it had mostly downsides, the many characters allowed me to get a complete understanding of all the characters' motives and feelings. And let me tell you, each character was very different, funny and clever in their own light so I have applaud the author on that.

One quote that I think really explains the relationship between some characters in novel comes from a chapter about the youngest sister, Melody as she remembers an earlier conversation with her siblings. "How grateful he he must have been in that moment, Melody thought, to discover how little they were asking from him, to realize how eager they were to believe him" (pg 292).

Lastly, the ending disappointed me a lot. I felt like it left me hanging and I felt anger towards some of the characters, but I won't go any further into that right now. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light-hearted easy read. If you have read this book or want to read it let me know.

Until next book...