Susan SageReseñas

I read only 30% but it got sooooo boring. I was waiting for some more action but I just can’t anymore... Sorry, but my TBR list is too long and my life is too short to waste it on trying to finish this book. I don’t know, maybe I’m just not in the mood at the moment, I may even give this book another try in the future. For now I have no more patience left.

To be completely honest, this book was creepy and weirded me out. The subject matter was uncomfortable to read. I read the book because I won it on Librarything early reviewers. I'm not sure who would like this book.

The protagonist of this book, Maggie, is a very creepy individual. A 50-something teacher, she becomes obsessed with a teenaged student. The author takes the obsession just short of crinimal, but the journey is uncomofrtable at best. The plot is weak, mostly it involves Maggie's obession, Tae, going on a road trip to meet whatr she considered to be an uncle but is actually her father. The characters are very well developed -- just uncomfortable to behold. In the end, nothing is really resolved, so there is no satisfying ending to this tale.½

The premise for the story is intriguing and the reason I wanted to read the book in the first place. Not sure what I was expecting. Possibly a Thelma and Louise-styled adventure, but on a kind of G-rating given the age of one of our adventurers. The author brings a number of issues to the story - pretty much everything from race, sexuality, literary (artistic) freedom and social constraints (both good and bad). The story was quite interesting at the start, where we get to learn about both Maggie and Tae's situations, but the whole road trip to focus on writing (which morphs into a road trip about family ties discovery) never really developed any cohesion for me. It came across in the end as too contrived, trying too hard to accomplish, what, I am just not sure. This is probably a case of too much being crammed into one story.

When I read (especially when there is first person) I tend to identify with the main character, but I never could crawl into Maggie’s head. I did not mind that she was flawed (aren’t we all?), but she was so lost and defiant and independent, that I could not find common ground. All the characters were flawed; the others I could understand and even sympathize with their points of view. Maggie, on the other hand, was truly self-aware, yet she never faced her own situation—she just kept running away. Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
I did find the writing compelling and I read to the very end wondering how this thread could be tied clean. The poem at the end was a nod to both women needing each other to write, however, I felt that coming from the one it did, it indicated that it worked for one and not the other. Maybe that was the intent: that sometimes our failing situation is ultimately for the benefit of someone else.

This was an intriguing novel. The protagonist, Maggie, is a middle-aged failed writer who has one published novel under her belt, but has produced nothing since. To make ends meet, she works in the local high school media center. Approaching menopause, she is alone, lonely, and frustrated. Tae is a 15-year-old black girl who is a student at the school. She is talented and vivacious and Maggie develops an overwhelming obsession with her, befriending the family and encouraging the young girl to become a writer. With a sort of nebulous approval from the girl’s mother, Maggie takes the teen and sets off on a road trip of discovery.

This novel started off great. Both of the main characters were interesting, multi-dimensional, and realistically portrayed. However, as the story wore on, I found myself getting bogged down. This, I attribute to the fact that the story is told almost completely in narrative – there is no dialogue. Hence, for me, it fell flat in the middle and it was a chore to keep reading. I also didn’t understand at all the character of Sulie and what she was meant to represent in the story.

It’s an interesting read with multiple points of view. However, it was not my cup of tea.

I received a free copy of this novel as part of Library Thing’s Early Reviewer Program.