A review by alexwhimsypages
Maggsie McNaughton's Second Chance by Frances Maynard

3.0

My name is Marguerite. (...) and flowers aren't the first thing you think of when you see me.

I desperately keep searching for books similar to «Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine». I would love to experience again the same emotions I felt towards Eleanor and her complicated and messed up life. And I keep falling for the blurbs “for the fans of Eleanor Oliphant” and then get disappointed when the book doesn’t live up to my expectations.

There were two main conflicts between me and the book: the lack of emotion from my part and the lack of immersiveness from the book. So let’s discuss these first before I talk about some positive elements.

1 - I love reading books about characters that are different from me, I love experiencing with them situations I’d usually never put myself into. The differences are usually what intrigues me, but the emotions are what sucks me into the story. Maggsie McNaughton didn’t make me feel anything, except annoyance at her attitude.

Maggsie is not a lovable character, and that would be alright if I’d experience some other positive emotion towards her or her life story - respect, pride, interest, affection, or even pity. Instead, I felt like I was SUPPOSED to root for Maggsie, but couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at every outburst of her temperament or silly actions.

2 - Everyone has their own bookish pet peeves. My biggest two are (1) swear words and (2) weirdly constructed sentences. They work like a switch, immediately pulling me out of the story.

Maggsie is dyslexic. So, of course, I understand the need to portray that as part of her character, showing through dialog her struggles and also her improvements. But I found it very distracting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Besides these two points, the rest was rather alright. Not as surprising or impressive as I hoped for, but not bad either:

1 - The highlight of the whole story for me was the friendship between Maggsie and the Polish guy, an immigrant from Poland, who was just the right character to balance out Maggsie’s imperfections - kind, eager to help, he took it upon himself to show Maggsie that life can be beautiful and interesting. Full of struggles, yes. But worth every moment nonetheless.
He was by far the most wholesome character of this book.

2 - Although I completely bashed Maggsie’s character, I have to admit that she had a few qualities that deserve some appreciation - stubbornness, and persistence. She has a goal that she wishes to accomplish. It drives her forwards and gives her hope. And maybe sometimes it felt as if she was only taking baby steps to achieve it, but those steps were huge leaps for Maggsie.