This was selected for my real-life mother-daughter book club. I really like the mother-daughter combo who picked this book, but I was still dreading it mightily. I'm afraid it was about what I expected and, quite honestly, maybe even a little worse.
The premise is that four mother-daughter pairs start a book club - the first selection is Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. I have my issues with that book, but I still think it's a solid classic worth sharing and discussing with young readers so I tried to get on board.
But, oh dear, there just isn't much here to satisfy an adult reader. I try to remind myself that book club isn't always about reading great books (although we have read so many great ones over the years - The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Wee Free Men, etc.) The real point is to come together and discuss books in a meaningful way and I can tell there will be a lot to discuss here, plus I do think most of the girls are really going to like this book.
Unfortunately, the book club is really just a plot device to tell a run-of-the-mill story about middle school angst. I didn't really find any of the characters to be at all realistic or relatable and no one in the book really behaves in a way that is believable or authentic.
I also just got kind of an icky vibe while reading the book. For example, there is this running gag about one particular character's fat ass - presented as acceptable because the character being fat shamed is an extremely odious individual. I was also super annoyed by some really dated and negative stereotypes about feminists and vegans. Really? What decade is this?
I think the worst thing for me is that the link to Little Women was pretty tenuous. I don't feel it was incorporated in a meaningful way at all. I think at first that made me angrier than I really should have been. I was looking for this book to offer up some insights into literature and life when really it's just a shallow, forgettable kind of book.
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