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A review by spaghettireads
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I know that people don’t read full captions, so I feel like I want to say off the top that I don’t think that I recommend this! It was a book club selection, and while it did provide a good discussion, I don’t think that any of us really loved this.
The sub-genre of historical fiction that generally features women looking away on the cover is not one that I usually reach for. While I did find the writing in this relatively engaging, and I did want to keep reading it to find out what the twist was at the end, I thought that the book had a lot of issues. Perhaps the fact that a real life historical tragedy has been written with the vibe of a mystery is the problem. As one of my friends pointed out, it felt as though just everything bad possible was happening to the characters.
And while I said that I was waiting for the final details to be revealed at the end, a lot of the book felt very predictable. My book club also talked about how the portrayal of people of colour, and mostly Black people in this story was pretty terrible.
So, as I said I wouldn’t recommend this. Thanks as always to my book club friends for a great discussion 😊
The sub-genre of historical fiction that generally features women looking away on the cover is not one that I usually reach for. While I did find the writing in this relatively engaging, and I did want to keep reading it to find out what the twist was at the end, I thought that the book had a lot of issues. Perhaps the fact that a real life historical tragedy has been written with the vibe of a mystery is the problem. As one of my friends pointed out, it felt as though just everything bad possible was happening to the characters.
And while I said that I was waiting for the final details to be revealed at the end, a lot of the book felt very predictable. My book club also talked about how the portrayal of people of colour, and mostly Black people in this story was pretty terrible.
So, as I said I wouldn’t recommend this. Thanks as always to my book club friends for a great discussion 😊
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent