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A review by chrissymcbooknerd
Great by Sara Benincasa
4.0
I never cared for The Great Gatsby in high school. I still didn't really get into it all in college, either. The characters always felt so annoying and shallow and frivolous, and I always hoped for a secret chapter to pop in somewhere and redeem the story, but it just never happened for me.
GREAT is kind of like that book -- in that the characters definitely felt annoying and shallow and frivolous --- and the plot line really seemed to go nowhere at times, filled with extraneous quirks and situations that really did nothing to advance the story.
So, why the four star rating, then?
Overall, I do think GREAT was an excellent YA retelling of the original classic. It maintained just enough obnoxiousness to remind me of the first book, with a few modern twists and turns to keep YA fans begging for more.
There was something mildly entrancing about this little book, which makes me interested in future works in the genre by the author.
If you hate The Great Gatsby, but have enough recollection to appreciate a quirky little teenager version of the story, I definitely recommend that you pick up GREAT. Just keep your expectations realistic (this is the YA genre, after all -- not another great literary classic).
GREAT is kind of like that book -- in that the characters definitely felt annoying and shallow and frivolous --- and the plot line really seemed to go nowhere at times, filled with extraneous quirks and situations that really did nothing to advance the story.
So, why the four star rating, then?
Overall, I do think GREAT was an excellent YA retelling of the original classic. It maintained just enough obnoxiousness to remind me of the first book, with a few modern twists and turns to keep YA fans begging for more.
There was something mildly entrancing about this little book, which makes me interested in future works in the genre by the author.
If you hate The Great Gatsby, but have enough recollection to appreciate a quirky little teenager version of the story, I definitely recommend that you pick up GREAT. Just keep your expectations realistic (this is the YA genre, after all -- not another great literary classic).