the fourth sister

Beth & Amy by Virginia Kantra
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: In the world of Little Women adaptations, many authors/screenwriters get caught in what I'm going to start calling the "Beth trap".  In the original, Beth is the "good" sister, which often means she's seen as the "boring" sister, so adapters try to make her more "interesting" (usually while still having her die).  Kantra does not avoid the Beth trap, but in her sure hands, Beth is able to be a full character, and a full member of the sisterly quartet (and she doesn't die, either).  I shouldn't have doubted Kantra, whose first book, Meg & Jo, was was far and away the best written adaptation I've come across.

Once again, Kantra has embodied the spirit of the original, while bringing the March sisters into the modern era.  In this book, Beth and Amy share the spotlight, and we even get some insight into the question of how Jo, Amy, and Laurie (in this book, Trey) all manage to reconcile their erstwhile love triangle.  Once again, Kantra handles this deftly and elegantly; everyone's feelings are respected and the reader gets a satisfying resolution too.

Once again, Kantra has given us a good book and a good adaptation, although this one perhaps stands less on its own without Little Women than did Meg & Jo.  Certainly, one should read Meg & Jo first.  But Little Women fans will enjoy this book alongside readers who have no familiarity with the original.  It's sweet, and light without being too light, and generally wonderful.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

alike but different

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction, YA

Review: This book reminded me a lot of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, but I was impressed by how Dessen took a very similar plot and made a very different story out of it. There are a lot of elements in this story other than what happened to Annabel and how she deals with it, including her relationship with her sisters, but Annabel's struggle to come to terms with her experiences is obviously the base of the book. Dessen has a fine ear for the voice of a high schooler. Overall, this is a gripping, realistic story. Like I said, Annabel's a great character and Dessen's writing is so good that we care about even the secondary characters, like Annabel's sisters.

There were two things I didn't like much about this book. The first was Sophie, Annabel's putative friend. She's barely a character in the story, so I can't really say I was disappointed not to see some growth in her, but she's depicted as such a flat character, with few redeeming qualities, that I had a hard time believing in her, which is a problem since, even though she doesn't figure into the story itself, she provides the center for much of the story.

My other problem had to do with Annabel herself. Although a very well-drawn character, much of what happens to her comes as a result of her making the same mistake over and over again. Which is not to say that we don't all do that, but at some point one might hope that a character would become aware of it at least to the point of not being so surprised when someone pointed it out to them. I feel almost nitpicky saying this, but Annabel was otherwise such a well-written character that I hated to see her be given such a glaring flaw.