A review by andipants
Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
4.0
I honestly loved this book. Basically my entire adult reading life has been spent trying to recapture the magic of reading the Little House series as a kid, and this pretty much did it for me.
The plot follows the story of [b:Little House on the Prairie|77767|Little House on the Prairie (Laura Years, #2)|Laura Ingalls Wilder|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1559209202s/77767.jpg|2884161] almost beat for beat, with a few exceptions, most significantly in that it follows historical fact over the fictional timeline in having Caroline be pregnant with Carrie when they travel to Kansas and give birth there (and it also omits the chimney fire scene, which I don't think is a major sin or anything; just something I noticed). The scenes and dialogue are often lifted straight from Wilder's original, but reframed and expanded with Caroline's thoughts and feelings and memories. And of course, there are occasional scenes that likely happened but Laura would not have been present for or aware of. It is an adult book, with adult characters, and yes, Caroline and Charles have a couple (very tame) "adult" scenes (which for me as a fan from childhood was kind of like acknowledging the fact that your parents had sex -- yeah, it's kinda awkward, but we're grown-ups here, people). The pacing is not fast, but this is an introspective book, meant to be savored, and boy, did I.
If there was one thing I didn't love, it's that Caroline here is still hella racist. Absolutely, wholeheardtedly racist. I mean, I know that's how she was in the original books, and almost certainly in real life as well, but there were a couple scenes where she came so close to having like, a tiny shred of empathy, or the smallest bit of self-doubt, but no. Have pages-long introspection and doubt about literally every other aspect of your life, perspective, relationships, whatever, but never once have the slightest hesitation about being super fucking racist. I'm not sure that it would have made it much better if she had shown some discomfort or self-awareness, honestly, but as it was, that was way more uncomfortable than having to acknowledge that Ma Ingalls used the outhouse or had sex.
The plot follows the story of [b:Little House on the Prairie|77767|Little House on the Prairie (Laura Years, #2)|Laura Ingalls Wilder|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1559209202s/77767.jpg|2884161] almost beat for beat, with a few exceptions, most significantly in that it follows historical fact over the fictional timeline in having Caroline be pregnant with Carrie when they travel to Kansas and give birth there (and it also omits the chimney fire scene, which I don't think is a major sin or anything; just something I noticed). The scenes and dialogue are often lifted straight from Wilder's original, but reframed and expanded with Caroline's thoughts and feelings and memories. And of course, there are occasional scenes that likely happened but Laura would not have been present for or aware of. It is an adult book, with adult characters, and yes, Caroline and Charles have a couple (very tame) "adult" scenes (which for me as a fan from childhood was kind of like acknowledging the fact that your parents had sex -- yeah, it's kinda awkward, but we're grown-ups here, people). The pacing is not fast, but this is an introspective book, meant to be savored, and boy, did I.
If there was one thing I didn't love, it's that Caroline here is still hella racist. Absolutely, wholeheardtedly racist. I mean, I know that's how she was in the original books, and almost certainly in real life as well, but there were a couple scenes where she came so close to having like, a tiny shred of empathy, or the smallest bit of self-doubt, but no. Have pages-long introspection and doubt about literally every other aspect of your life, perspective, relationships, whatever, but never once have the slightest hesitation about being super fucking racist. I'm not sure that it would have made it much better if she had shown some discomfort or self-awareness, honestly, but as it was, that was way more uncomfortable than having to acknowledge that Ma Ingalls used the outhouse or had sex.