alexblackreads's review
5.0
I love everything Ellen Emerson White writes, but this book might be the best thing I've ever read. I adore every second of reading it. Like it's more than seven hundred pages long and every time I read it, I'm always just so sad when it ends. It feels like it goes on forever, but in the most wonderful way where I'm enjoying every second.
I love Meg's character. Her voice is so strong and she's so smart. I love that it's not an author trying to make a character sound smart, but a character who actually is intelligent and shown through the writing. I love that her pain so visceral. I love that she feels real and relatable, for all that her struggles are nothing like mine. I love that she's allowed self reflection and growth, and that she is flawed.
I love her family and their relationships. Her parents are struggling in their marriage and it's shown through the eyes of the kids as so real. I love Meg's relationship with her siblings. I love her friends and her romantic interests.
This book feels very slice of life, but that isn't to say dramatic events don't happen. A lot happens. It's just that it doesn't feel like it has a very strong narrative force because it's largely about Meg and her personal growth.
The writing is gorgeous. I can't name any other book that can make me both laugh and cry, let alone at the same time. I'm pretty sure there was a line I loved and remembered on every page, and that's a lot of memorable lines. It's utterly masterful. I don't know anyone else who writes like this.
I genuinely can't fully express my love for this book. It's so well done and I literally can't think of anything negative to say about this. It's a masterpiece and I'm pretty sure I spend half my life trying to bully other people into reading it. So please do. It's so wonderful.
I love Meg's character. Her voice is so strong and she's so smart. I love that it's not an author trying to make a character sound smart, but a character who actually is intelligent and shown through the writing. I love that her pain so visceral. I love that she feels real and relatable, for all that her struggles are nothing like mine. I love that she's allowed self reflection and growth, and that she is flawed.
I love her family and their relationships. Her parents are struggling in their marriage and it's shown through the eyes of the kids as so real. I love Meg's relationship with her siblings. I love her friends and her romantic interests.
This book feels very slice of life, but that isn't to say dramatic events don't happen. A lot happens. It's just that it doesn't feel like it has a very strong narrative force because it's largely about Meg and her personal growth.
The writing is gorgeous. I can't name any other book that can make me both laugh and cry, let alone at the same time. I'm pretty sure there was a line I loved and remembered on every page, and that's a lot of memorable lines. It's utterly masterful. I don't know anyone else who writes like this.
I genuinely can't fully express my love for this book. It's so well done and I literally can't think of anything negative to say about this. It's a masterpiece and I'm pretty sure I spend half my life trying to bully other people into reading it. So please do. It's so wonderful.
kricketa's review
3.0
on the whole, i have really enjoyed reading this series. but this conclusion left me feeling unsettled for a few reasons, some of which are admittedly petty:
1. i do not like jack. i want meg and preston to get together. preston understands meg and the way her family works. preston is a man, jack is a little boy. meg needs a man. preston wears killer suits, jack wears hawaiian shirts that he has to UNTUCK to cover his boners. just no.
2. meg's refusal to get professional help for her PTSD, eating problems, or...really, anything at all. i get that she is a private person who doesn't like to ask for anything, and i think her being *slightly* more honest with her parents and friends at the end was supposed to show growth, but it drove me crazy. you got kidnapped by terrorists. if you're willing to accept surgery from the best surgeons in the country, accept some therapy from the best therapists in the country.
3. the entire book was just so long winded. there was so much struggle and so little growth. everyone tries to get meg to eat. meg won't eat. meg is thirsty. meg won't do anything about it. meg is in pain. meg won't do anything about it. meg is lonely. meg won't do anything about it. snail's pace. was this realistic? oh yes, yes it was. didn't necessarily make it any less frustrating to read.
that said, i did like that the ending wasn't all neatly and perfectly wrapped up. it gives me hope that eventually, (maybe after a 5,000 page 5th book?) things will turn out the way i was rooting for.
Spoiler
1. i do not like jack. i want meg and preston to get together. preston understands meg and the way her family works. preston is a man, jack is a little boy. meg needs a man. preston wears killer suits, jack wears hawaiian shirts that he has to UNTUCK to cover his boners. just no.
2. meg's refusal to get professional help for her PTSD, eating problems, or...really, anything at all. i get that she is a private person who doesn't like to ask for anything, and i think her being *slightly* more honest with her parents and friends at the end was supposed to show growth, but it drove me crazy. you got kidnapped by terrorists. if you're willing to accept surgery from the best surgeons in the country, accept some therapy from the best therapists in the country.
3. the entire book was just so long winded. there was so much struggle and so little growth. everyone tries to get meg to eat. meg won't eat. meg is thirsty. meg won't do anything about it. meg is in pain. meg won't do anything about it. meg is lonely. meg won't do anything about it. snail's pace. was this realistic? oh yes, yes it was. didn't necessarily make it any less frustrating to read.
dja777's review
4.0
I didn't like it as much as "Long Live the Queen," but it was still really good. A lot of White's main character's voices sound very similar to each other, but I really enjoy the snarky sense of humor. The whole series is very good.
jules1278's review
2.0
I wanted to love this book, which continues after Meg Power's kidnapping and through her freshman year of college. I think it says a lot that I kept reading after the first few chapters, as it really doesn't do that good a job of endearing sympathy. Not a terrible novel by any means, but definitely not my favorite of White's.
magdon's review
4.0
The 4th (and final?) book in a series that started when I was in junior high. EEW took about 20 years off before writing this one and I was glad to find out about it. She did a nice job of continuing the characters while updating the series. Meg spends a lot of time depressed (and why shouldn't she?) but I didn't want to yell at her to get over it. She got a good grasp on how hard that first time away at school experience is without all the other baggage Meg has. And of course, an uplifting ending!
cooeeaus's review
3.0
Although I enjoyed the book overall, I agree with earlier reviewers that it is repetitive. Meg is in pain emotionally and physically, yes we know it! But over and over again with it! Please! I would have liked to see more growth in Meg and more of a disentangling of issues between Meg and her family. Because I liked Meg's mother and Meg appears to be much like her, so I would have liked Meg to connect with her mother more emotionally. I love when the author brings in Steven and Neal, her brothers, they are funny and witty, they provide some comic relief to all the angst in the novel. I also think Preston is a wonderful person and he seems to really get Meg and her family.
I would like the author to complete this series with one more novel taking into account some of the criticisms her readers have mentioned. A novel showing growth of characters, overcoming personal issues and moving on scenarios, would be a treat to this series, I think.
I would like the author to complete this series with one more novel taking into account some of the criticisms her readers have mentioned. A novel showing growth of characters, overcoming personal issues and moving on scenarios, would be a treat to this series, I think.
jessalynn_librarian's review
4.0
Although I missed Ellen Emerson White's books when they were first published (being more the age for picture books at the time), I managed to find a hideous copy of Long Live the Queen earlier this year, and looked forward to this brand new title in the series. You don't really need to have read the previous books to 'get' each installment, since White does a good job of incorporating information from previous books without making it dull for those who've actually read them. LLTQ and this one do tie together as a pair, the first dealing with Meg's kidnapping and this one with trying to pull her life back together afterwards. While they've got those sensationalist plot elements - kidnapping, being the first woman president's daughter, recovering from horrific injuries - Meg is such a great snarky, three-dimensional character that I still gulped down the book (despite its 700 or so pages, I read most of it the day after Christmas, curled up in a chair and only getting up to eat). Meg goes off to college - despite barely being able to walk and being surrounded by Secret Service agents - and it FELT like college. Of course there's tension and drama and relationships - and that's just the other people in her dorm. A good read for fans of White's earlier books, or teens/college students who like a good thick book they can throw themselves into. Language, sex (not graphic), violence, flashbacks to psychological torture...all the usual suspects.
alisonjane's review
5.0
I love this book so much, and often reread just this one...but after this reread, I'm thinking I might need to reread the whole series...
library_hungry's review
4.0
I love how well Ellen Emerson White does aftermath. She writes about what happens when the thrilling adventure-movie part ends, and someone tries to get back to normal life--with a shattered knee, broken hand, and post traumatic stress. About trying to go to college when you aren't remotely normal.
And she writes about Williamstown, in great detail! Which was fun.
And she writes about Williamstown, in great detail! Which was fun.