Not My Cup of Tea

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Quick Stats
Overall: 3.5 stars
Characters: 3.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 5/5

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I kept going back and forth on this one. Joy McCullough is a beautiful writer. The subject matter was so important. The addition of historical fiction and how Marguerite’s story is woven in was phenomenal. But I could not get myself to like Em.
I loved pretty much every other character—Sometimes Jess felt a bit immature to me. I felt like they were melodramatic at times. But Marianne drove me crazy. She was so selfish and self-righteous. Her character had a lot of potential for growth, but I feel as if she just regressed. Every thing that happened to her resulted in her lashing out overdramatically and immaturely. I understand she was struggling with trauma, but it was hard to read without getting annoyed. Also, I think she snapped out of it way too easily and suddenly. Within like one chapter towards the end she did a 180, and honestly? I feel like in reality, she probably would have needed a lot of therapy to get to that point at all, let alone in a 24 hour span.
The plot started out really strong. I was swept away and read the first 60% in one sitting. Seeing the way everyone was handling what happened to Nor differently, getting to know Jess, and getting led into Marguerite’s story was really well done and absorbing. I loved how Jess took Em to medieval sword fighting lessons. And I honestly couldn’t get enough of the writing itself. Plus, as someone who lives in Western Washington, all of the references to Seattle were fun. I now really want to visit that Illuminated Texts exhibit after COVID is over.
However, at about that 60% mark, Em started shutting everyone out and only writing Marguerite’s story. Don’t get me wrong, Marguerite’s story was one of my favorite parts of the novel, but it very suddenly took over and the actual plot of the book just completely dropped off the radar for several chapters. It was a very sudden change from mostly Em to mostly Marguerite and kind of made it hard to stay interested in the book for a while.
It did end strongly, if a little unrealistically.
I would still recommend giving this book a shot if it sounds up your alley, it just wasn’t for me.