Reviews

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek

sjj169's review

4.0

I really cared about Ellie (the child in this book) She had so much to deal with and she still was a good kid. She handled mental illness, her dad cheating in the same house as her mom and death of a beloved pet with grace. Good southern book.

moonpiegeorge's review

3.0

Good read although it is a little depressing.

sonia_reppe's review

5.0

This book is beautifully written, even though a lot of ugly things happen. It was heart-wrenching. The main character, Ellie, was so sweet and strong, my heart broke for her. Told from her ten year-old point of view, the book convincingly shows how fiercely she loved her parents. I felt her panic and sorrow at the demise of her parent's relationship and the downward spiral of events. Not only was the prose good, the plot was gripping and I had to stay up late to finish the book. I felt like this book almost gave me a fever I was so wrapped in Ellie's nightmarish life. Her mom is severly crazy, yet Ellie tenderly cares for her and loves her. The scene when the dad leaves is so intense! I don't know how much this would affect readers who are children of divorce, it might be too depressing for them.
I love tomatos and I love books about girls, and I love this book.

mick's review

5.0

This book was super dark and sad, but had a strong voice, was intriguing, and left me bummed that it was over.

scorpstar77's review

4.0

I actually finished this book over a week ago, and I haven't reviewed it because I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to say. It's heart-wrenching, there's no doubt about that. The main character is a pre-teen girl named Ellie in Virginia or North Carolina, I think during the 1960s. She's in a terrible situation and she's just trying to make the best of it. Her mom is utterly batshit crazy. As in, she should be institutionalized, but she's not. Her dad has tried to take care of both of them for a long time, but seems to have reached his limit being married to a crazy woman and has fallen in love with someone else - who can really blame him? His faults lie more with his putting the well-being of his new girlfriend above the obvious emotional needs of his daughter. Ellie is terribly emotionally traumatized throughout the events of the book, though by the end, you have hope for her as she talks about finally opening up to the therapist she's seeing and how she's settling in with a good foster family. Still, the entire book makes your heart bleed for this little girl. I enjoyed the story, I really did. What holds me back on this is that there's something...off about the writing. I can't put my finger on what it is, and I've been trying to figure it out for a week with no success. It is the author's first novel, and I think most authors improve their craft with every book, so I don't want to be too critical, but I have to be honest that sometimes I was jarred out of the story by the writing, but I just can't identify what it is that bothered me. It's a good story, though, and I think the book is worth reading for that.

heatherinjapan's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

11 year old me put a lot of hard hitting books on my tbr. I'm glad I read this as an adult. Very sad but unfortunately a reality for so many people. 

Book 4 of reading the books on my tbr the longest

shelleyann01's review

3.0

3.5 Stars - What I loved best about this book is that the story is told through 11-year old Ellie's eyes, and how she views the world she lives in. Ellie is so genuine you just want to sweep her away to a normal childhood. Ellie's mom suffers from undiagnosed bi-polar disorder and the book details the stuggles Ellie endures at the hands of her selfish parents. Such a sad story.

deadly_nightshade_'s review

5.0

Jayne's writing haunts me.
She's alive.She has to be. Her words sting like lemon juice on a fresh scrape.
Her thoughts bring me to realize why man designated the heart and not the brain as the body's chief container of emotion. Reading them, I clasp my hands over the space just to the lower left of my esophagus.
Only someone living can evoke such emotion.
The sentences touch me. I feel them. I hold my breath at times. Her prose asphyxiates me.
Reading this book, I'm eleven again. My name is Ellie, and I'm suffering. Suffering from an illness God gave me, and only God can take away. That illness is called Family.
Even after the illness is gone, the scars will remain. Scars that may never heal.

Mrs. Pupek,
Thank you. You are my inspiration.
Your words fossilized the difficulties
in one fictional girl's life. They
revealed not just the beauty, but also the
filth and the depravity so prevalent on
Earth today. Your poetry felt as delicate as
the condition of any child on the verge of adolescence.
You managed to place tenuous love in a vacuum without
causing it to splinter and divide endlessly, without
allowing it to recover to a state of absolute nothingness.

jacky6's review

4.0

So hard to write a review - captivated by the story and the characters, but I cried so hard I find it difficult to recommend. My heart ached for this child, but in my opinion, a book that makes me feel a character's pain that deeply is worth something.

wrongheaven's review

5.0

One of the best books I ever read. I pretty much devoured this book in one night. This book was beautifully written and absolutely haunting. I gasped, I cried and cried and cried, and I wanted to reach into the book and rescue the main character, Ellie, and scream at the characters in the book who put a burden on this child that no adult could bear. I can't recommend this book enough and I look forward to reading what Pupek writes next. I won't forget this book anytime soon.