Saturday, June 07, 2008

Girls to women

Do you think this is a good coming-of-age novel?
Posted by at

6 comments:

Erin said...

I think so. As I said in my previous comment, Cassandra especially seems to grow up between the first page and the last. That's some pretty skillful writing, if you ask me, because I didn't feel it coming. It was a seamless maturing process.

11:33 AM, June 10, 2008
kc said...

It was seamless, and I agree that's quite a feat, especially, I think, to do it in the first-person voice in such a short timeframe (the span of the novel is a year or less, isn't it?)

11:43 AM, June 13, 2008
Erin said...

Right, it was about a year, I think. And it's not as though there was one big turning point after which she suddenly "grew up." It was subtle.

1:28 PM, June 14, 2008
rev amy said...

You didn't feel the kiss from Simon was the turning point?

I thought she seemed a very different girl after that. Her complete optimism was dashed and she fell into despair and melencholy, and self-pity as forcefully as she had held on to her happiness, playfulness and self-confidence before.

It felt very abrupt to me and I kept wishing she would grow up and move on from Simon. But maybe I was rushing in reading.

9:02 PM, June 15, 2008
kc said...

Oh definitely, the kiss was a turning point, but it naturally flowed, I thought, from what came before. It knocked her over, but at the end I thought she was regaining her balance and coming into her own.

2:56 PM, June 16, 2008
Erin said...

Agreed, the kiss was a turning point. But it didn't make her "grow up." She didn't suddenly start talking like an adult. The gradual maturing process was her working through the experience and the emotions that followed.

4:19 PM, June 16, 2008

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)