White Oleander by Janet Fitch Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.48 You Save: $11.47 (82%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of White Oleander
Book Review: White Oleander
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this author! Much better than the movie, but the book always is!Book Review: love love love love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rare and amazing book. Fitch has a way with words that makes you completely lose yourself in the story. Her character development is amazing, and her storytelling is perfect. Seriously recommended!Book Review: three years later, not impressed
Summary: 2 Stars
I first read this book when I was about seventeen years old. I was just starting out with my own writing, and when I read it I was astounded at how someone could write so well.
The other day I found it in my closet and decided to read it again because I remembered how much I liked it. This time around. . . I found it to be overly descriptive to the point of headache-inducing. I love description myself, and Janet Fitch really has some awesome description (I think this is what drew me to the book in the first place). But come on. A simile every other line? After awhile I'm not impressed with them anymore, because there are too many to care about. She should have edited this down A LOT.
Also. . . the narrative is *way* too poetic for a teenage girl. This book should be written in the third person, because you can't have the first person point of view of a teenage girl filled with so much poetry, references to mythology, introspection. After awhile it makes no sense, because no "real" 13 or 14 year old girl will talk this way! Granted, Astrid's mom is a poet so I guess it could partly be explained by that. But after awhile that doesn't sound like an excuse. I think that *maybe* all the descriptions could work with a third-person point of view, but definetely not a narrative.
The only thing that I thought really worked about this book was the character development of Astrid and Ingrid. Astrid's growing bitterness and distrust of the world were wonderfully portrayed. But other than that. . . unless you have the patience to sit through TONS of similes, metaphors, and overly-artsy description. . . I don't suggest reading this.