Author: Chelsey Philpot

Book Buddies Review: Even In Paradise

Posted June 22, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 3 Comments
Book Buddies Review: Even In Paradise

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Cristina’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Cristina’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. Do you see this as a Great Gatsby “retelling” or just a book that makes a few parallels to it? Cristina: For the first 80% of the book I thought it merely had some parallels to Gatsby (such as Charlotte paralleling Nick, the outsider looking in), but at the end of the book, especially with the twists, it seemed to become much more of an adaptation. I sort of thought the first big “twist” was a good nod to Gatsby, but the additional one at the end felt a little too excessive, like it was trying too hard to emulate the novel. Lauren: I agree. I think the book was trying a little too hard. I could tell that some kind of tragedy was brewing for the end, but I didn’t think it would so closely resemble Gatsby. I did like the parallels of Charlie to Nick, because I think […]