Review: The Giver of Stars

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Note: Took me three days to get to 30 pages, imagine how bad this novel must be for me to take such a long time..

Ah yes, this same blasted author, that I promised I'd never read again after checking out Me Before You series.

But guess what? I got roped in, yet again by goodreads and it's popularity, and the author being Jojo Moyes..

Gosh.

But let's move, shall we?

The cover - Reminds me of the view you get through the telescope when looking at the night sky. The stars, glinting bright and happy, and the sky being so blue, you feel it being painted rather than actually existing. Such a surreal feeling I got when I first looked at the cover. Hence why the points.

The summary -Late 1930s, America. There are two women, Alice and Margery. Alice Van Cleve, who gets married to Bennet Van Cleve just to escape her harsh family and life (being british and all). Once she moves to America in a little town with Bennet's family (his dad), she realizes things are far more tougher and not as frivolous as she would have thought it to be. She tries to manage life in every way she can. Then one day, there's a meeting held in the church about the Pack Horse Librarians, and getting volunteers for it. She signs up in the hopes that this will please her husband (but it doesn't, surprise, surprise) and on her adventure starts, as a pack horse librarian, along with the woman, Margery O'Hare who's different to her, and yet aiming for similar goals: to be able to get more people involved in learning about literature. Love, friendship and true meaning of words comes into play with this historical fiction novel.

Brilliant summary. And considering it revolves around books and education about books, I was all down for it. Hence why the star.

But then..

The writing -Slow, way too slow, info dumping a heck lot, made me doze within first 30 pages of the book.

The lovers - Why is Alice finding someone new at all? She's married and yet this fact is completely ignored? I don't even.

The stereotypes - Alice is the good girl rebel, Margery is the true rebel, and their lovers are honest Romeos, everyone else in their town is like the Sheriff of Nottingham, getting rich off ignorance.

I can't even. Such a promising novel but then the writing, the shallow characters, the stereotypes were all too much for little old me to handle.

So I'm sorry to lovers of Jojo Moyes' novels, I cannot go on the boat of support you hold for her. I'd rather sink it unfortunately. This book is heavy enough, it may just do the job.

Not a recommend at all, overall.

PS: I heard about the plagiarizing with the Book Woman something novel. People, people, people. Similar topics can be written off, nothing is original anymore. A new idea will always become borrowed for someone else. As for similar writing style, it happens. Authors often read each others' works and often end up writing similar dialogues and situations. So I don't think there's much need for offense or fuss. That's all.

Until the next read,

TMR

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