“Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was or become part of it.”

I get it. I do. I understand what this book was meant to be and I understand what it has been for many people.

That being said, I still thought this was bad for what it was. (I'm clarifying this because I know some people critique this book for being exactly what it advertises itself to be and I want to be clear that I didn't go into this expecting it to be anything other than what it says it is.)

I think the characterization was poor. The writing style felt like a twelve-year old imitating C.S. Lewis' writing style, amazed by their own wit and intelligence (as they write a sentence that is... both redundant and contradictory, which I suppose is - to some degree - impressive.) That's not even talking about the lack of quotation marks (I know it was a creative decision to be immersive, I'm still allowed to think it was stupid.)

Being entirely honest, I never thought I would pick up this book but I recently started the show and I've been really intrigued in how things are handled. I'm only 6 episodes in right now so my opinions may change, but the show actually improved on a lot of the issues I had with the book and I'm hoping that carries on in the second half.

Overall, I know what this means to people and I'm so grateful that this book has made people feel so seen. I just didn't feel like it delivered what it should have.