HELLO BEAUTIFUL BY ANN NAPOLITANO

BOOK NAME: HELLO BEAUTIFUL 

AUTHOR NAME: ANN NAPOLITANO

GENRE: LITERARY FICTION

PUBLISHER: PENGUIN BOOKS

BOOK BUY LINK: https://amzn.in/d/9uC5YlC

BOOK COVER IMAGE

BOOK REVIEW

I so badly want someone to tell me that I read the wrong book this whole time. Or did I, really? Because this was not what I imagined it would be. I am so sorry to admit that I am among the one per cent of readers who hated this book. I am sad I chose the wrong book to end my year with. I was so deceived by the captivating cover and the mention of homage to Little Women.

This is more of a rant than a review because I have nothing new to offer than what the 4 lakh people had already written about it, except for my own experiences. And to rant about this book, I don’t know how to do it without giving away a lot of the story and for obvious reasons, I am going to draw comparisons between this one and Little Women. So please feel free to skip this review because I might as well be spoiling two books for you here.

Firstly, with all due respect, this isn’t a homage to Little Women. As someone who recently read and loved the classic and its various retellings, I couldn’t oversee how each character was butchered in this one. The very core of unity and sacrifice, which is the backbone of the classic, is lost in this one, where each sister is selfish and inconsiderate, including Marmee. I am so mad at the author for making Mrs March’s counterpart, Rose, a terrible mother.

Regarding the sisters and their bond, I could very well see the characters resembling the March sisters. However, Sylvie and Julia were both Jo with shades of Amy and Meg, respectively. Their bond definitely felt warm and cosy, as close to home as the original one, but it was not comparable. The twins were reduced to side characters and there was not one sensible person in this book, except maybe Alice.

Shall we speak about Sylvie and William? I just want to make it clear that these two CANNOT BE A THING, no matter how attracted they are towards each other. Even if they can’t resist their desires or feel they are soulmates, even when they feel Julia would approve of it, this simply cannot be. Because one cannot fall for their sister’s man, no matter whether the marriage survived or not. I figured that angle way before when Sylvie was third-wheeling Julia and William all along, and it didn’t come as a surprise when they both started dating after Julia left the picture. Girl, it was your sister’s husband once and the father of her child! No matter how wrong Julia was, this felt cringy. 

And Sylvie developing feelings for William even when he stayed married to his sister was gross. And I couldn’t believe that no one else found anything problematic about it, as if it was the most natural thing to do. It felt terrible that not even her sisters had taken Julia’s side, and everyone felt Sylive and William were the angels who belonged to each other. And why blame Julia alone? Didn’t William hide the most critical part of his childhood from her? Wasn’t he the one who kept her in the dark since day 1 and accepted the way she planned their future? And suddenly, one fine day, he found her suffocating. Sorry, it did not feel convincing at all. 

When it happened in Little Women, it did not matter because Jo never really wanted Laurie. She liked him but never saw him as her companion. What transpired between Laurie and Amy later felt very natural and convincing. But here, it was just too gross to take. 

And things I wish hadn’t appeared a million times in the book are “it’s his mantra… no bullshit, no secrets”, “it all started on the bench that cold night”, and “I understand it’s because of his childhood trauma. Because of his parents.” Like, can we please stop normalising unacceptable behaviour and attributing it to childhood trauma? Like he doesn’t talk much and doesn’t want to work because of his trauma. Okay, acceptable. He wants to end his marriage because of his trauma. Oh well, okay. He wants to kill himself because of his trauma. That’s sad, sorry. He gives up his child and doesn’t want to be her father anymore because of his trauma. Ummmm, what? He will marry the other sister and keep the sisters forever apart because, you know, his childhood trauma. Wait, Are you serious? And the one thing I was looking forward to was how her sisters would react to Sylvie opening up about her relationship with William. It was just over in a line, “Her sisters were quiet when she was done.” Like, what was that? 

So the storyline is just two sisters wanting the same man, and the one finally ending up with him has a cliched catastrophic ending… wait have I read that somewhere already? Oh yes, and that’s why the ending failed to move me, unlike others. It's too hard not to see the similarities between this and Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, which I hated as well, by the way. Okay, as a final verdict - if you loved Little Women, please stay away. Read the retelling ‘Jo and Laurie’ instead.

MY REVIEW: 2/5

This is a part of Blogchatter’s #TBRchallenge

#penbooksandscalpel