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A review by kmehegan6
Where Would I Be Without You? by Guillaume Musso
2.0
This book was easy to read and not entirely predictable. I made the mistake of finishing it late at night so I don’t feel like saying a whole lot about it, but here are some Quick Thoughts:
- Coke and Coke Zero are mentioned too many times for me not to question whether this book was financially backed in some way by the Coca Cola Company.
- I liked the contrast between the experience of age and the impetuosity of youth.
- The ending got Very Weird, folks. The last 50 pages took like a star and a half off my rating of this book.
- Quote I liked: “Fearing the worst was far more frightening than knowing the worst.”
- Quote that made me roll my eyes: “The expression got under his skin like a snake bite, putting ice crystals in his veins and fracturing the wall of stone around his heart.” Such DRAMA?!?!? And also just way too many separate images going on there, friend.
- Quote(s) I hated: Any and all quotes that made stereotyping generalizations about male and female behavior or compared females to precious stones (this here is where we get the word “objectify”).
- Quote I REALLY hated: “Never stopping to admit to herself what she knew really: that she needed a compass to guide her, arms to embrace her and fists to protect her.“ YIKES.
Implicit sexism notwithstanding, there was a lot said about Gabrielle’s baggage and Problems™️, but we didn’t get to see it go down, and we CERTAINLY never get it from her point of view. Hands-down she is the most important and yet most underdeveloped character in this book — we never get to understand her motivations, beyond being told by the male characters that she’s let herself be used and abused by all the men in her life. The real abuse here, I think, is giving a character agency to kind of f*ck over the male hero and then ending the book before she gets a platform to speak for herself.
I said a lot more than I meant to, but I could say a lot more still. Anyone else wish Gabrielle were better developed?
Two stars because I really wouldn’t recommend it.
- Coke and Coke Zero are mentioned too many times for me not to question whether this book was financially backed in some way by the Coca Cola Company.
- I liked the contrast between the experience of age and the impetuosity of youth.
- The ending got Very Weird, folks. The last 50 pages took like a star and a half off my rating of this book.
- Quote I liked: “Fearing the worst was far more frightening than knowing the worst.”
- Quote that made me roll my eyes: “The expression got under his skin like a snake bite, putting ice crystals in his veins and fracturing the wall of stone around his heart.” Such DRAMA?!?!? And also just way too many separate images going on there, friend.
- Quote(s) I hated: Any and all quotes that made stereotyping generalizations about male and female behavior or compared females to precious stones (this here is where we get the word “objectify”).
- Quote I REALLY hated: “Never stopping to admit to herself what she knew really: that she needed a compass to guide her, arms to embrace her and fists to protect her.“ YIKES.
Implicit sexism notwithstanding, there was a lot said about Gabrielle’s baggage and Problems™️, but we didn’t get to see it go down, and we CERTAINLY never get it from her point of view. Hands-down she is the most important and yet most underdeveloped character in this book — we never get to understand her motivations, beyond being told by the male characters that she’s let herself be used and abused by all the men in her life. The real abuse here, I think, is giving a character agency to kind of f*ck over the male hero and then ending the book before she gets a platform to speak for herself.
I said a lot more than I meant to, but I could say a lot more still. Anyone else wish Gabrielle were better developed?
Two stars because I really wouldn’t recommend it.