mckaley

my second read of this, I tried to keep what I remembered from last time in mind while reading this through. it's a book about meaninglessness and freedom and it a way made me feel more free. it's pretty matter of fact and sometimes a bit funny how ood the main character is

needed something fun and sweet between some of the darker lit i’ve been reading, couldn’t help but compare the book and the movie since i watched the movie recently. this is a children’s classic and i love the idea of matilda being a form of miss honey inner child and helping her overcome. solid lil book about overcoming abusive situations 💘

i understand certain aspects of this book aren’t for everyone, Esther, as a main character is incredibly whiny and judgmental, but I think there’s some historical context is important to think about in retrospect to what she wanted out of life and how it felt inaccessible to her (not talking about her racism in the story). Esther experienced a lot of similar things I did when I started to come to the end of college that made me feel purposeless, and the story in that aspect made me feel seen. she doesn’t wanna get married. She doesn’t wanna have children and in that era that’s basically all women were for. I think she continuously battles with that. I genuinely believe that things only got as bad as they did because of the fact she experienced that electro shock therapy. it changed her fundamentally as a person it muted her, subdued her and that was her greatest battle. she went to only two appointments with psychotherapist, and he immediately recommended shock treatment. because it’s so odd and uncomfortable that a woman might feel an emotion other than nothing.

I think the best part of this book is probably the final chapter. It felt so impactful for me. I also feel so sad for Sylvia Plath just knowing that this book feels like a diary. It feels like a genuine reflection of herself, her life events, and the things she experienced.

I really find Margaret Atwood to be an phenomenal writer when it comes to the way she builds scenes and the details she includes, but I think for this story in particular, it didn’t stick the landing for me. We had some building of the world, but for the most part, it remained an unsolved mystery. I didn’t even realize I was nearing the end of the book because I was listening to it and then all of a sudden it’s just over just as I was feeling like we were finally getting to the climax of a story where we would discover something and we just didn’t. This was probably intentional, but I don’t know if it worked for me.

I finished this book really quickly because it had me so engaged, but I’ll be honest the actual ending of the book was just so unsatisfying. Hated Ryujis character and it’s obvious why. Why include apart about him lying about his actions? I don’t understand the purpose of his background. It was a fun read, i loved the unfolding of the actual origins of the tape