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A review by tiffyb
Costalegre: A Novel Inspired by Peggy Guggenheim and Her Daughter by Courtney Maum
3.0
2.5 stars ⭐️
If you are looking for a fiction book about art, artists, World War II, Mexico, or any character in this book, you will not enjoy this book. If you are hoping for an interesting plot or conclusion, then this is not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking to read a feverishly poetic but confusing story about a teenaged girl who is widely ignored and incredibly downtrodden, this is the book for you! It will give you feelings, but you won’t know why you feel those feelings.
The diary of an awkward, introspective 14 year-old girl. Lara’s personality caused her to run from confrontation, not ask any questions, and not seek out truth or understanding of her circumstances. This left the reader, alongside of her, with no idea what was happening as the book progressed. Every time we got close to answering one of our questions, Lara walked away, didn’t say something, or ignored her surroundings. This is somewhat realistic for a girl her age who is easily embarrassed, confused, and insecure. But it doesn’t translate well into an interesting book.
I really hated the format of this book. Some “diary entree” style books can be interesting, but this one tried a bit too hard to seem like a diary. Half the time, she didn’t know the day of the week. She copied endlessly from a book about plants that had nothing to do with the storyline. She wrote lists, names, translated words... and most (if not all) of them had absolutely nothing to contribute to the story. Even when Lara wrote about the happenings around her, she would write them out of order or be too embarrassed to write details about happenings. Lara is not well educated, and of course writing in a private diary, but the punctuation was dismal. Run on sentences, skipped words, no commas or quotation marks.
It was so easy to lose track of characters. Most of the characters were flat and confusing. We never understood their intentions or reasoning. The only ones we even began to understand were Lara and Jack.
I was left confused by a poetic and fragmented diary of a downtrodden and ignored teen instead of historical fiction and fascinating characters.
If you are looking for a fiction book about art, artists, World War II, Mexico, or any character in this book, you will not enjoy this book. If you are hoping for an interesting plot or conclusion, then this is not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking to read a feverishly poetic but confusing story about a teenaged girl who is widely ignored and incredibly downtrodden, this is the book for you! It will give you feelings, but you won’t know why you feel those feelings.
The diary of an awkward, introspective 14 year-old girl. Lara’s personality caused her to run from confrontation, not ask any questions, and not seek out truth or understanding of her circumstances. This left the reader, alongside of her, with no idea what was happening as the book progressed. Every time we got close to answering one of our questions, Lara walked away, didn’t say something, or ignored her surroundings. This is somewhat realistic for a girl her age who is easily embarrassed, confused, and insecure. But it doesn’t translate well into an interesting book.
I really hated the format of this book. Some “diary entree” style books can be interesting, but this one tried a bit too hard to seem like a diary. Half the time, she didn’t know the day of the week. She copied endlessly from a book about plants that had nothing to do with the storyline. She wrote lists, names, translated words... and most (if not all) of them had absolutely nothing to contribute to the story. Even when Lara wrote about the happenings around her, she would write them out of order or be too embarrassed to write details about happenings. Lara is not well educated, and of course writing in a private diary, but the punctuation was dismal. Run on sentences, skipped words, no commas or quotation marks.
It was so easy to lose track of characters. Most of the characters were flat and confusing. We never understood their intentions or reasoning. The only ones we even began to understand were Lara and Jack.
I was left confused by a poetic and fragmented diary of a downtrodden and ignored teen instead of historical fiction and fascinating characters.