cursed_sapphire's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was my favorite book when I was a kid and I'm glad I revisited it now, because the humor and tension still really hold up. Gilda is just as much a delight as I remember her, and now that I'm older I can also appreciate her complexity, especially regarding her feelings with her father’s tragic death and her mother beginning to move on. I also appreciated Mr. Splinter more as an adult, now able to understand his guuilt and trama over his sister's suicide.
However, sadly not everything aged well. This book is definitely trapped in an early 2000s mindset, leading to some dated tropes and lines. Rosa the housekeeper is a stereotypical superstitious Latina housekeeper and Summer seems to be more of a "dumb blonde" California girl than a fleshed-out character. And the handling of mental health, including suicide and mental disabilities/neurodivergencies, is dated. I applaud the fact that therapy and mental health medication is brought up as a positive solution to some characters' problems, but the fact that people with suicidal thoughts are referred to as "crazy" is not a good look. And Gilda's letter near the beginning of the book described her intelligent, neurotypical brother as an invalid with an unspecified mental disorder in order to gain sympathy and "get back" at him for some small slight.
If you can look past those things and/or consider them as an unfortunate side-effect of the era, I recommend this book as a fun, light-hearted read with a great sense of humor and some good emotional flashbacks.
However, sadly not everything aged well. This book is definitely trapped in an early 2000s mindset, leading to some dated tropes and lines. Rosa the housekeeper is a stereotypical superstitious Latina housekeeper and Summer seems to be more of a "dumb blonde" California girl than a fleshed-out character. And the handling of mental health, including suicide and mental disabilities/neurodivergencies, is dated. I applaud the fact that therapy and mental health medication is brought up as a positive solution to some characters' problems, but the fact that people with suicidal thoughts are referred to as "crazy" is not a good look. And Gilda's letter near the beginning of the book described her intelligent, neurotypical brother as an invalid with an unspecified mental disorder in order to gain sympathy and "get back" at him for some small slight.
If you can look past those things and/or consider them as an unfortunate side-effect of the era, I recommend this book as a fun, light-hearted read with a great sense of humor and some good emotional flashbacks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Cancer, Mental illness, and Suicide
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