Churie
This honestly disappointed me. It wanted to be like My Dark Vanessa, and touched on some of the same topics as Lolita, however I feel those 2 titles handled the material far better.
Although I really liked McCurdy's prose in her autobiography, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much here. The constant tangential observations often felt like filler. Many of the explicit scenes were pure shock content rather than progressing story or character. Themes such as self-image, toxic relationships, and shopping addiction were dealt with in a heavy-handed way - it was a repetitive cycle, all done very literally, and never really felt like it progressed. In fact, the ending seemed more like the natural end of infatuation, and driving off leaving unfinished business and loose ends really hammered in the fact that I don't feel Waldo actually developed much as a character at all through the story - only the relationship changed. If we want to continue the theme of Waldo making her mother's mistakes and the cycle of abuse, then judging by the ending, Waldo also seems doomed to fall into the same patterns rather than breaking the cycle, which made the whole book feel a bit unsatisfying.
Additionally the 'voice' of Waldo felt the same voice as in McCurdy's autobiography to me, which also detracted from the story she was trying to tell. Combined with some shared plot points such as Mormonism and single-parent families, I wish it read as more distinctly different.
Furthermore, as pointed out in another review on GR (that I think describes the issue far better), Mr. Korgy almost falls into being a tragic romantic at times in the story, which was absolutely not the intention (I can see he was meant to be more pathetic groomer). However that doesn't change the fact that I didn't completely like his portrayal, and once again I feel this was handled better in other works I've read before.
Overall I don't think this was bad per se, just I personally didn't like the prose or handling of the subject matter, and as a result after enjoying her previous autobiography so much it was a bit of a let-down.
> No, I will not be rereading (or re-listening)
> No, I would not recommend
This honestly disappointed me. It wanted to be like My Dark Vanessa, and touched on some of the same topics as Lolita, however I feel those 2 titles handled the material far better.
Although I really liked McCurdy's prose in her autobiography, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much here. The constant tangential observations often felt like filler. Many of the explicit scenes were pure shock content rather than progressing story or character. Themes such as self-image, toxic relationships, and shopping addiction were dealt with in a heavy-handed way - it was a repetitive cycle, all done very literally, and never really felt like it progressed. In fact, the ending seemed more like the natural end of infatuation, and driving off leaving unfinished business and loose ends really hammered in the fact that I don't feel Waldo actually developed much as a character at all through the story - only the relationship changed. If we want to continue the theme of Waldo making her mother's mistakes and the cycle of abuse, then judging by the ending, Waldo also seems doomed to fall into the same patterns rather than breaking the cycle, which made the whole book feel a bit unsatisfying.
Additionally the 'voice' of Waldo felt the same voice as in McCurdy's autobiography to me, which also detracted from the story she was trying to tell. Combined with some shared plot points such as Mormonism and single-parent families, I wish it read as more distinctly different.
Furthermore, as pointed out in another review on GR (that I think describes the issue far better), Mr. Korgy almost falls into being a tragic romantic at times in the story, which was absolutely not the intention (I can see he was meant to be more pathetic groomer). However that doesn't change the fact that I didn't completely like his portrayal, and once again I feel this was handled better in other works I've read before.
Overall I don't think this was bad per se, just I personally didn't like the prose or handling of the subject matter, and as a result after enjoying her previous autobiography so much it was a bit of a let-down.
> No, I will not be rereading (or re-listening)
> No, I would not recommend