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A review by emmareadstoomuch
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
1.0
This feels like a particularly apt moment to say that I abandoned this book as part of my no-books-featuring-romantic-relationships-with-oppressive-sexist-gross-first-half-of-20th-century-German-enemy-soldiers-in-general policy.
Can you believe that it's 2017 and this is the third time I've had to disavow that trope this goddamn week?
Anyway. This isn't a review of twenty-first century America, so I'll move on. (But don't you kinda wish it was? Not even a little? Got it.)
After I really loved Me Before You, I a) immediately fell into a slump and b) attempted to remedy said slump by acquiring as many Jojo Moyes books as possible. And I've learned that liking that book, which I am terrified I'll reread and hate and hence will forever avoid, may have been my sole positive Moyes experience.
No, that's not true. I met her at a library event in the city once, and she had a perfect accent and was very nice and noticed that I had brought my own copies of her books, which was very endearing, and then charmingly and British-ly said, "A bookworm, isn't she? Lovely." Or something to that effect.
And One Plus One wasn't bad. But this book is.
It felt alternately boring and overwrought, and I initially picked this up pretty soon after reading All the Light We Cannot See, and it's really just unfair to authors everywhere to pick up chick-lit historical fiction after picking up Pulitzer Prize-winning historical fiction.
So I put this down for a while, and then I picked it back up, and then I determined picking it up again was the wrong choice and promptly put it back on my shelf to take up space and go unread.
Probably I'll sell it.
But in all seriousness, I'll likely have an eternal soft spot for Jojo Moyes, will probably pick up her next book if it comes out within the next year (I don't know if she has one lined up but whatever) - AND IF IT DOESN'T FOCUS ON LOUISA AGAIN, BECAUSE GOD F*CKING DAMN IT AFTER YOU RUINED MY LIFE.
AND NOT IN THE GOOD WAY.
(the other thing I was trying to say before distracting myself was that this book is not for me, but it could be, quite possibly, for you.)
(this is part of a project I'm doing in which I write mini-reviews of books I read a while back. the unintentional joke is that they become less and less "mini" with each passing day.)
Can you believe that it's 2017 and this is the third time I've had to disavow that trope this goddamn week?
Anyway. This isn't a review of twenty-first century America, so I'll move on. (But don't you kinda wish it was? Not even a little? Got it.)
After I really loved Me Before You, I a) immediately fell into a slump and b) attempted to remedy said slump by acquiring as many Jojo Moyes books as possible. And I've learned that liking that book, which I am terrified I'll reread and hate and hence will forever avoid, may have been my sole positive Moyes experience.
No, that's not true. I met her at a library event in the city once, and she had a perfect accent and was very nice and noticed that I had brought my own copies of her books, which was very endearing, and then charmingly and British-ly said, "A bookworm, isn't she? Lovely." Or something to that effect.
And One Plus One wasn't bad. But this book is.
It felt alternately boring and overwrought, and I initially picked this up pretty soon after reading All the Light We Cannot See, and it's really just unfair to authors everywhere to pick up chick-lit historical fiction after picking up Pulitzer Prize-winning historical fiction.
So I put this down for a while, and then I picked it back up, and then I determined picking it up again was the wrong choice and promptly put it back on my shelf to take up space and go unread.
Probably I'll sell it.
But in all seriousness, I'll likely have an eternal soft spot for Jojo Moyes, will probably pick up her next book if it comes out within the next year (I don't know if she has one lined up but whatever) - AND IF IT DOESN'T FOCUS ON LOUISA AGAIN, BECAUSE GOD F*CKING DAMN IT AFTER YOU RUINED MY LIFE.
AND NOT IN THE GOOD WAY.
(the other thing I was trying to say before distracting myself was that this book is not for me, but it could be, quite possibly, for you.)
(this is part of a project I'm doing in which I write mini-reviews of books I read a while back. the unintentional joke is that they become less and less "mini" with each passing day.)