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A review by condensedmilk
Village Matters by Rebecca Shaw
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Bad. Just... bad. There are a lot of things I dislike about this book even if I can recognize that this kind of book was not written for me. It also seems to be a product of its time in a way, as I understand that this was written in 1997. I picked this book up because the edition I had had a really pretty cover but it seems the cover was the best part of this book.
*I came back to this review to add that the 'r' slur is used on page 141 of the book, in my edition. In the scene, the parents talk about the possibility that their child has a mental disability in a rather insensitive way. I say this for anybody sensitive to that kind of discussion. Obviously this book is quite old so I'm not sure if it is anybody's fault that it is still in there but proceed at your own discretion.
I really don't like the characters. The main cast seem to be written as perfect people with as minimal flaws as possible and the most flawed characters of the novel are the antagonists to our main characters or the less important minor characters such as background characters. This book is more of a village utopia than anything and though the village has its conflicts, they are far too easily and quickly resolved to the point that it is not interesting or compelling. It is like the author is unwilling to put the characters through any real conflict and that sucks and of course everything is worked out perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after. I'm not petitioning for the characters' lives to end in despair (though because I hate all the characters I would personally prefer that) but just give me something here. Show the reader that the conflicts they go through affect them in the long run, even if they are resolved. And why are all of their problems so cleanly worked out anyway? As far as I'm concerned, this book isn't a serialized children's book, even if it is serialized, why is this book absent of a more mature way of ending things? Frankly, it is super boring. Because it's abundantly clear that the writer only wants their Mary-Sue characters to live their best lives possible, even if that means that they become stale in the process.
This book is a huge disappointment because the genre and overall idea of the book is something I was really interested in. The idea of 'small world, small minds', was something the book touches on but fails to make interesting, again. I think the author was trying to do something with that idea but maybe I just found everything else to be so dissatisfactory that I couldn't enjoy this aspect of the book. As for the genre, a soft, slice-of-life, small village read sounded perfect. I love slice-of-life so it is not as if I disliked this book because I didn't like the genre. I just didn't like this book. Slice-of-life isn't meant to be boring, it is meant to be an escape of sorts with the character/s in their own little world doing whatever, really—just living life. But the world of Turnham Malpas is so disengaging that I wanted to bang my head on the wall every time I saw how perfectly these characters are carrying out their lives. Where's the conflict?! what's the goal of this read?? I don't know about anyone else but this book gave me stress not relaxation.
Another thing that was annoying was how conservative this book was. It was always the dreamy idea of a family and what not. I'm getting into things that annoy me more personally so be warned. This book is really just an old, white woman's fantasy and not even an engaging one. I really hated Flick, a young girl in the book, because she is really such an annoying, obsequious character. She's like the picture-perfect daughter your parents' wishes they had but they got you instead.I gained great joy from when that car rammed into her and consequently very disappointed when she survived. I just hate her because she is infinitely boring. I hate every character in this book because they're all basically the same person with the same views and same ideas but with a few unimportant differences to feign diversity. They're all family people with family values and whatnot and the people who are not these things, want to be. It's really dumb. They all have the same ideals. Also, when I say white woman's fantasy I also mean that there are no people of color in this story. I don't really care if there aren't because not every story has to be diverse but there really are no POC at all. Not even a token black character or anything. Any characters that are not beautiful or rich are ugly and poor. Like the lady who works at a school or something (can't remember her name) has more descriptions of how ugly her hair is than her internal life. She's also poor but gets a house at the end of the book so that's nice. She was the closest I had to a favorite character.
To wrap this review (more of a rant really) up, would I recommend this book to anyone? No. Of course not, I gave it 2 stars. I hate this book, it was such a slog to get through.
*I came back to this review to add that the 'r' slur is used on page 141 of the book, in my edition. In the scene, the parents talk about the possibility that their child has a mental disability in a rather insensitive way. I say this for anybody sensitive to that kind of discussion. Obviously this book is quite old so I'm not sure if it is anybody's fault that it is still in there but proceed at your own discretion.
I really don't like the characters. The main cast seem to be written as perfect people with as minimal flaws as possible and the most flawed characters of the novel are the antagonists to our main characters or the less important minor characters such as background characters. This book is more of a village utopia than anything and though the village has its conflicts, they are far too easily and quickly resolved to the point that it is not interesting or compelling. It is like the author is unwilling to put the characters through any real conflict and that sucks and of course everything is worked out perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after. I'm not petitioning for the characters' lives to end in despair (though because I hate all the characters I would personally prefer that) but just give me something here. Show the reader that the conflicts they go through affect them in the long run, even if they are resolved. And why are all of their problems so cleanly worked out anyway? As far as I'm concerned, this book isn't a serialized children's book, even if it is serialized, why is this book absent of a more mature way of ending things? Frankly, it is super boring. Because it's abundantly clear that the writer only wants their Mary-Sue characters to live their best lives possible, even if that means that they become stale in the process.
This book is a huge disappointment because the genre and overall idea of the book is something I was really interested in. The idea of 'small world, small minds', was something the book touches on but fails to make interesting, again. I think the author was trying to do something with that idea but maybe I just found everything else to be so dissatisfactory that I couldn't enjoy this aspect of the book. As for the genre, a soft, slice-of-life, small village read sounded perfect. I love slice-of-life so it is not as if I disliked this book because I didn't like the genre. I just didn't like this book. Slice-of-life isn't meant to be boring, it is meant to be an escape of sorts with the character/s in their own little world doing whatever, really—just living life. But the world of Turnham Malpas is so disengaging that I wanted to bang my head on the wall every time I saw how perfectly these characters are carrying out their lives. Where's the conflict?! what's the goal of this read?? I don't know about anyone else but this book gave me stress not relaxation.
Another thing that was annoying was how conservative this book was. It was always the dreamy idea of a family and what not. I'm getting into things that annoy me more personally so be warned. This book is really just an old, white woman's fantasy and not even an engaging one. I really hated Flick, a young girl in the book, because she is really such an annoying, obsequious character. She's like the picture-perfect daughter your parents' wishes they had but they got you instead.
To wrap this review (more of a rant really) up, would I recommend this book to anyone? No. Of course not, I gave it 2 stars. I hate this book, it was such a slog to get through.
Content Warnings
Due to this book aging like milk, the 'r' slur is on page 141 of my edition of the book.