Format: ebook
Published: 7th May, 2024
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical
Rating: 3/5 Stars
I really went back and forth on how I felt about this through pretty much the whole book. It’s (allegedly) based on the author’s aunt, and I’d honestly love to know how much of it, outside the ‘obvious’, is fiction vs reality, as if even half of this happened to her it’s hell of a life, but so much of it is blurred and it’s hard to tell what was dramatized and what actually happened.
The use of recipes might be a little polarising, but personally I quite liked them. Initially I was going to skip over them, but they really did add to the characters and story rather than just being straight recipes. There were a lot of little additions to these I thought served as a nice touch.
Part of the issue I had was things were so bleak. It didn’t really feel like it matched with the marketing (book cover, blurb etc) of the book itself. It also felt like it was cramming in too much. There are characters and locations I really wanted to spend more time with/in, but it felt like the most interesting parts were glossed over for more depressing moments. Characters often felt over the top for the sake of humour, and though there were plenty of funny or heartwarming moments, these were overshadowed by the awfulness.
The first third of the book is just incredibly sad. There are moments I don’t think are meant to be as such, where the characters are acting a certain way or Bella especially sees things in a positive light, but as a reader able to read between the lines and more fully understand the circumstances, it’s hard not to see things as just sad. They do pick up somewhat after Bella escapes and finds a home in Coney Island. Based on the marketing I thought we’d spend a bit longer there, but although things do start looking up for Bella, she makes some bad decisions and ends up, again, in a really dire situation.
This was the main issue throughout the book: everything is so bleak. It really contrasts with the type of book I thought this was, and didn’t match my expectations. It’s clear from the blurb that Bella deals with a lot throughout (she’s pregnant at fifteen, her baby is taken away, and she’s sterilised), but it felt like there was just no hope throughout, or when there is a glimmer of hope it’s very quickly snatched away.
I gave this three stars, but it’s more about 2.5. There were parts I really enjoyed, but these were few and far between, and the recipes were a nice, unique touch, but the positive elements are overshadowed by the sense of hopelessness that threads throughout.
Reading Challenge
2025 TV Shows Reading Challenge
Prompt: Friends – A book set in New York
Progress: 1/12
Unwrapping Words 