A review by breecreative
The Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder
1.0
I should know better...if I see it in a magazine, it's won awards or is promoted by Oprah...I won't like it. But I fell for the hype...again. Admittedly, I saw this one in a Canadian magazine, saying it was "the best Canadian lit" etc.
It wasn't terrible, though I'm not really sure what made it NOT terrible. First of all, I couldn't understand what was going on about 90% of the time. It was completely pointless. I hated Juliet's mom, not that I really cared that much about any of the family members. When I thought it was about to get juicy, include SOME plot, it moved on to something else. Add to that, it was told from Juliet's point-of-view for the most part. Then switched from Juliet to a narrator and back (without rhyme or reason) once she moved to Canada. THEN it switched from that to every family member in succession. THEN it switched back to Juliet, but by then I was so lost, I had no idea what was going on. Oh, and it would randomly have blatant foreshadowing like "I knew I would do that, she thought later." Very confusing.
The story just doesn't ever TELL you anything. It's a lot of words that say nothing, and you're left guessing about what just happened. I kept thinking that it would get better, but I should have just given up on it. I have to say, I'm glad it's over.
It wasn't terrible, though I'm not really sure what made it NOT terrible. First of all, I couldn't understand what was going on about 90% of the time. It was completely pointless. I hated Juliet's mom, not that I really cared that much about any of the family members. When I thought it was about to get juicy, include SOME plot, it moved on to something else. Add to that, it was told from Juliet's point-of-view for the most part. Then switched from Juliet to a narrator and back (without rhyme or reason) once she moved to Canada. THEN it switched from that to every family member in succession. THEN it switched back to Juliet, but by then I was so lost, I had no idea what was going on. Oh, and it would randomly have blatant foreshadowing like "I knew I would do that, she thought later." Very confusing.
The story just doesn't ever TELL you anything. It's a lot of words that say nothing, and you're left guessing about what just happened. I kept thinking that it would get better, but I should have just given up on it. I have to say, I'm glad it's over.