Buddy Reads discussion

Say your thoughts :)

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Tip: Pair up with another/other member/s so that you can experience the buddy read better when you start at the same time :)

I'm going to start this one as I've been meaning to anyway. So glad it won so many votes! Anyone else joining?

The parts are long, not like chapters so takes a while to get into the story when so much is happening seemingly at once. The style is also unusual but I'm beginning to like it. I like the emails and the unexpected humour.

Bee is pretty great, and even though it doesn't seem it, their family is pretty tight-knit. Certainly not the dysfunctional sort which doesn't care for its members. I know what's coming from the blurb but i can't really see what exactly triggered it. But then it's probably one of those: straw that breaks the camel's back. Something small, a long time coming after all the build-up causes a crumble. Kinda like their house. Even with wet wood and all, I've got it in my head that it's like a fairy tale cottage.... Maybe because of Bee's Sleeping Beauty idea?

Just starting the book and it's still taking me some time to get used to the way it is written.

It gets better after a bit but I do know what you mean! I like Bernadette's emails the best. Funny and long! In part 2, which I just finished, we learn more of her story. Her past. She's a fully fleshed character! She makes the story worth reading I think. She's not perfect but still endearing enough and fairly interesting. Eccentric.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it, and I’m trying to put myself back in the mindset of how I felt reading it at the time, lol.

What I remember the most from the beginning of the book is feeling ... annoyed with Bernadette. Is it just me, or does she rely on the personal assistant who doesn’t even live in the same country way too much?

She does rely on her assistant a lot, but her assistant is like her only friend so in a roundabout way I can understand. Honestly, if I had an assistant who just did what i requested whenever, I'd make full use of it. For me though, I have no patience for writing down tasks i need to get done or delegating stuff and then checking if it's done/done correctly. I'm not manager material!

If she was in the same country as her, it wouldn't be considered unusual. So I guess that's what the authors suggesting: Bernadette is forced, for reasons yet unknown (to me, anyway), to make her life more difficult. She wants to avoid people that much.

I do find her a little bit entitled, and unaware of her privilege. She can be annoying for this, certainly.

Good call, on her wanting to avoid people that much. That makes a lot of sense!

I just finished the book, was a four star read for me. Thinking on it now, not only is it well written and clever for its writing style: updating us on what is happening through the characters, and their wittiness themselves. But I also think the writer did a good thing in building up her characters and presenting a decent reality where all the characters have pretty messed up lives! ;)

Saarah wrote: "I just finished the book, was a four star read for me. Thinking on it now, not only is it well written and clever for its writing style: updating us on what is happening through the characters, and..."

it's great to hear that you liked it!

how is everyone else finding the book?

I just started recently! I’m on page 86

Hope you find it a fun book, Em!

Going to start this soon!

Erica wrote: "Going to start this soon!"

yay!

Em wrote: "I just started recently! I’m on page 86"

Hey Em! How's the book going for you?

I read the comments at the top about the writing style and I agree it's different, but I kind of like it, makes me feel like I'm reading faster and getting through plot.

But I also agree the parts are pretty long. I like how Bernadette send's her assistant these long emails and then she replies with a short "Ok I'll get that sent to your house" afterwards.