This was a though-provoking novel about how we treat boys and girls, privileged and less-privileged kids and our own children vs the children of other people. I think Giffin does a good enough job with the subject, but there was definite room for expansion and improvement.
Some of the characters, especially the adults, felt too one-dimensional. I kept waiting for a big, I don’t know, ‘moment’, where something revelatory would happen, but the plot wasn’t really satisfying. I also felt like Nina was an idealized version of who the reader was supposed to be. We all think we’d be the Nina in her situation, but how many of us would be her husband instead?
The whole book came off as a little too filtered, the rough edges rounded out so it’s easier for a middle-class and up audience to digest. Maybe if some of the rawness was left alone, I’d have had a more emotional response.
Some of the characters, especially the adults, felt too one-dimensional. I kept waiting for a big, I don’t know, ‘moment’, where something revelatory would happen, but the plot wasn’t really satisfying. I also felt like Nina was an idealized version of who the reader was supposed to be. We all think we’d be the Nina in her situation, but how many of us would be her husband instead?
The whole book came off as a little too filtered, the rough edges rounded out so it’s easier for a middle-class and up audience to digest. Maybe if some of the rawness was left alone, I’d have had a more emotional response.