Reviews

Neunzehn Stufen by Millie Bobby Brown

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bethaniekay's review against another edition

2.0

The reviews for this book are all over the board, and for good reason. Some love it, and others hate it. Among those who hate it, some are upset about the lack of credit given to the ghost writer, and others feel the writing is very poor. I'm in the latter camp - for both reasons listed.

I don't necessarily have a problem with ghost writers in general. I understand they're a part of the literary world, and that they serve a purpose. What I do have a problem with is a 'celebrity' seemingly taking the vast majority of the credit for a novel they didn't write, all while giving little-to-no credit to the person who actually did write it. I'm not sure how much (if any) of this novel Millie Bobby Brown wrote, but it feels like the interior title page saying "Millie Bobby Brown, with Kathleen McGurl" is misleading. I think the more honest thing to do would've been for this book to have been published and marketed as "by Kathleen McGurl, with contributions from Millie Bobby Brown". McGurl's name should have been on the front cover somewhere, instead of just Brown's name.

That being said, my other problem with this book is that the writing is atrocious. There's an interesting underlying true story about the 1943 tragedy in the Bethnal Green tube station, and that was about the only part of the novel that wasn't a total snoozefest. The rest of the book was so cliche and boring, and the writing was extremely elementary. I skimmed over 3/4 of this book because it was such a chore to get through. And don't even get me started on the unrealistic and childish love story in this novel, which made me roll my eyes numerous times.

What could've made this book more impactful - and this was a major miss on the part of the publisher/editor - was if Brown had shared how exactly this story was related to and/or inspired by her family. Brown has stated that her mother and grandmother grew up in the Bethnal Green area, and that her grandmother used to tell stories about having to shelter in the Bethnal Green tube station - but is that the only connection? Was her grandmother involved in the 1943 tragedy? Did they lose any of their family members or friends? Did her grandmother tell her these stories herself, or was it passed down through her mother or her nanny?

Overall, this book was a massive disappointment and I would definitely not recommend it to anyone.