kricketa's review against another edition
5.0
another mindblowingly perfect novel from mal peet. history and romance crossing three generations. lovely, clever & funny. i love how peet managed to make me fascinated with the cuban missile crisis, a topic i have never particularly warmed to, interest-wise.
nattejones's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sophieroses's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
fionac326's review against another edition
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
superduperefer's review against another edition
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I really love this book but the parts about the cuban missile crisis felt quite pointless to me, I skimmed over most of it. The ending leaves much to the imagination, there could’ve been more added there. Other than that it was great, it goes back and forth between third person and an older Clem’s perspective and the first few chapters are before he was born, about his parents and grandparents. I’m not quite sure it’s a teen book but I am a teen and I enjoyed reading it.
sarahward's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book. Mal Peet's writing style gets into my head and I found myself rereading certain parts just because they sounded so lovely. With that being said, the Cuban missile parts could have been shorter and towards the end I just started skimming them to get through it.
christiek's review against another edition
There's a lot here that wants to be liked. I enjoyed the characters, the plot is interesting. I didn't read far enough to know how the whole thing was connected to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I gave up on the book after the history lesson that tried to be written in Clem's voice about 188 pages in. For the whole of those 188 pages, I have no idea why a teenager would be interested in reading this book. I kept wondering, Why is this YA? What did me in (besides a fairly slow pace) was the narrative voice. About a 1/3 of the book is first person by an adult Clem and the rest third person. It didn't work for me even a little.
nedge's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
pwbalto's review against another edition
5.0
But it's not like I wouldn't hand this to a teen. I would, I so very very would. In fact, I might suggest it as a class read for a high school class studying the Cold War - the Cuban Missile Crisis is given a lot of pages here. But Life: An Exploded Diagram is teen reading in the way that Jonathan Safran Foer can be teen reading - not an obvious choice. I have been saying that it's kind of like John Irving by way of John Green.
Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/2012/03/life-an-exploded-diagram-by-mal-peet-review.html
Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/2012/03/life-an-exploded-diagram-by-mal-peet-review.html