A review by heykellyjensen
Dreams of Significant Girls by Cristina García
3.0
I loved the writing, as it was really literary, and the food descriptions could almost be tasted. This book reminded me a lot of Nina de Gramont's GOSSIP OF THE STARLINGS, right down to the boarding school, the drug and sexual content and brutality therein, the acts of defiance on the parts of the characters, and the writing style.
However, I found it hard to understand the motivations of the characters. They acted on impulse, all three of them, but I never quite got the whys of it. It made it difficult for me to buy their stories because of this. There's a lot of action on their part, and while there is consequence to it, it didn't make sense to me as a reader. I needed more of what they were thinking and why they were following through. It was a missing piece of their development.
That said, I did quite like the connections the girls had that they didn't suspect, despite how convenient it was. Maybe I liked it because it gave me a reason to understand the underlying/subconscious motivations of the characters. It comes really too late though.
I feel like I could have read 100 more pages of the book with more character development up front and then this would have been a really strong book.
However, I found it hard to understand the motivations of the characters. They acted on impulse, all three of them, but I never quite got the whys of it. It made it difficult for me to buy their stories because of this. There's a lot of action on their part, and while there is consequence to it, it didn't make sense to me as a reader. I needed more of what they were thinking and why they were following through. It was a missing piece of their development.
That said, I did quite like the connections the girls had that they didn't suspect, despite how convenient it was. Maybe I liked it because it gave me a reason to understand the underlying/subconscious motivations of the characters. It comes really too late though.
I feel like I could have read 100 more pages of the book with more character development up front and then this would have been a really strong book.