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Little Women And Me (2011)

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted(Favorite Author)

3.03 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1599905140 (ISBN13: 9781599905143)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

review 1: In the Author's Note at the end of this book, Lauren Baratz-Logsted basically excuses herself by saying that, if things in her book seem to come out of nowhere completely at random, that's just because it's written episodically, just like Little Women! I would have screamed, but I had reached a Zen-like state where nothing in this book could move me to extremes of emotion. I was simply too tired.Too tired of listening to Emily, the narrator, whine.Too tired of seeing the March sisters, my beloved, beloved March sisters, fictional friends of my childhood, portrayed as being mean and foolish.Too tired of seeing Laurie, my first book boyfriend, second only to Gilbert Blythe, portrayed as a hot idiot who gets the vapors if a girl bats her eyelashes at him.Too tired of hoping... more there would be any clues whatsoever about how Emily had gotten herself into the book, and how she could get herself out.At one point, I hated this book so passionately I wanted to start circling things with a red pen. But by the end I just thought, Meh. There was too much wrong with it, but the premise was so good!This is the awesomest idea for a book EVER. Emily, a modern teen, is given the assignment to write a paper where she fixes something she doesn't like about her favorite book. She chooses Little Women, a favorite of mine as well, and a book that many people think has a couple of flaws. 1. Beth shouldn't die! 2. Laurie should marry Jo, not that suck up Amy! (Though I agree with this first problem, I have come to realize as an adult that the second problem isn't a problem at all. Laurie wants to be a member of the March family, and Jo is like a sister to him. Amy, with her dreams of wealth, is actually far more suited to the rich, well-traveled Laurie than Jo. But I can see how many people disagree, and that's fine.) And then Emily gets magically sucked into the book! She has the chance to change the book, save Beth! Hook up Jo and Laurie! Why not, right?Why not? Because the idea of this book is so much better than the reality.Like I said, I'm fine with people thinking Laurie and Jo should end up together. What I'm not fine with is telling the reader that Little Women is your favorite book, and then mocking it ruthlessly for 300 pages. The sisters are constantly mean to Emily, for no reason, giving her plenty of reason to be mean right back and thus belying her protestations that this is her favorite book. They're all portrayed as being vain and foolish and weird, except for Beth, who is apparently simple-minded. How shy and musically gifted translated to being dim-witted, I don't know. But there were no likable characters to be found here at all.The other thing that galled me is that there's rhyme or reason for the time travel, she's just there. Throughout the story, time jumps forward as it does in the book, which is great, but sometimes Emily's character has changed and sometimes she hasn't, and why? The other characters have no memory of Emily from before she joined their story . . . except when they do. The rules are broken again and again. It could have been very whimsical, to have Marmee forget that she had five daughters, or that no one knows whether Emily had scarlet fever as a child, or can sing well, except that sometimes it's presented very meanly ("Who cares if you were there?") and sometimes they magically do have those memories. Emily tries to get back to her own time exactly once, and then never tries anything again. About three times she thinks, for a second, will I ever go home? But then she goes on with her life in 1880, which she doesn't enjoy and continues to find boring, confusing, and lame. She doesn't miss her family or friends back in the 21st century, she's more concerned with getting the one hot guy around (Laurie), before Jo or Amy does. Why? Does she ever consciously recognize that she's just being competitive, or see any point to it? Nope. She rolls her eyes every time Laurie opens his mouth and thinks he's weird and kind of a sissy. But he's hot! There's a guy, he has to like her and only her, and so she's going to be the third wheel for the next 300+ pages and think she's so clever and alluring! GAH.Also, throwing a 21st century teen into the 1880's could have been an opportunity to compare differences or have some fun fish-out-of-water moments, but time and again those opportunities were missed. Emily gets her period just a couple of days after she arrives in 1880, and doesn't know what to do. Jo explains it to her. No, that's it. It says, "Jo explained it to her." Oh, COME ON. Not that I want gory details, but I think it would have been fascinating to drop a few hints in there about how things were handled in the days before Kotex. Likewise, Emily says that making breakfast is hard and takes a long time and didn't turn out well. No other details. What did they make? Why was it hard? ANYTHING?! Nope. Nothing. She hates sewing, but no mention of what she's sewing or if anyone cares if she's terrible at it. So many missed opportunities! I just . . . I just wish the actual book lived up to my expectations when I saw the title.
review 2: I think fans of the original Little Women would like this book. It reminds me a bit of this TV show called 'Lost in Austen' where a modern girl gets magically transported into the world of her favorite book and tries to fix things and get a taste for life in that world. What annoys me is that the author adds in so many words and exclamations like "Coolio!" or "HA!" in it throughout that it makes it seem like she is either trying too hard or losing touch how real people talk. Once you get over that, it is a passable story even if the central character is a bit shallow and one dimensional. less

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