How I Live Now
Ratings41
Average rating3.2
Another one of those books I've found in Goodwill. I remeber that the only reason I wanted it is because It had No Cover. But I ended up loving it. Even with the not-really-concluding ending (at least to me it was) it still gets 5 stars from me.
“Now let's try to understand that falling into sexual and emotional thrall with an underage blood relative hadn't exactly been on my list of Things to Do while visiting England,but I was coming around to the belief that whether you liked it or not, Things Happen and once they start happening you pretty much just have to hold on for dear life and see where they drop you when they stop.”
― Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now
I couldn't finish this book. I tried, but I just couldn't get past some of the relationships that seem inappropriate. I didn't appriciate the way it referred to Jesus in some durgoatory terms, and after that I was done with this book. I imagine the story could be good if only a few things didn't put me off so much.
I still don't know what to think about this one or how to rate it. The main protagonist was incredibly annoying. I think the author was attempting to make her sound cute and witty but it was a complete failure. It took away from the gravity that one was supposed to feel for people who are all of a sudden found in a modern day war. There were several scenes where I just couldn't even feel the horror of it because of Daisy's “voice”. This was supposed to be a compelling story of survival, family, love, endurance and then recovery, understanding and forgiveness but it was all lost in translation.
Surprisingly, I didn't care about the kissing cousins plot. It didn't bug me as much as others. I think I ignored it mostly to get through the book...Yet, like many other readers I did find it weird that no one else in the book thought it weird and were completely alright with it and like many other readers I think it was unnecessary. I agree that it could have been a neighbor/family friend.
This is an extremely fast read.
If you can get over the kissing cousins and annoyance, then go for it.
Maybe a 2.5?
Slow starting, or it'd probably be four stars. Love the relationship between Daisy and Piper.
Narrated by 15-year-old Daisy, this book looks at the brutalities and confusions of war through her eyes. I loved, loved, loved her voice. Snarky but soulful and so very compelling. My favorite line: “I don't get nearly enough credit in life for the things I manage not to say.”
A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.
I don't know exactly what I was expecting with this book, but it took me way off the track. I suppose I thought this would be an Angst-y Teen book, and it is that, filled with prerequisite (though not, in the book's defense, of an in-your-face sort) Eating Disorders and Mean Step-Parent Difficulties and Young Troubled Love. But somewhere along the way, Rosoff threw in a Small Nuclear War.
I liked and I didn't like this book. I liked our main character's perspective on the world. I liked her relationships with her extended family. I was not crazy about the Personal Problems and, even less, the Societal Problems; these seemed like they were tossed into the salad unnecessarily.
I tried reading this book before bedtime and it gave me horrible anxiety and I couldn't fall asleep for ages. It's not even that it's a very graphic war story or anything, but the book is just imbued with so much tension. It's really well done. Buut I can't say I especially enjoyed the experience of giving myself a panic attack for 200 pages, so I'm filing this under “well-written but I'll probably never read it again.”