Llew's Reviews

This one was a retelling and remaking of Cinderella. I hate to admit it, but I missed the singing mice.

How thick am I that it took me three-fourths of the book to realize this was a retelling of Snow White? I mean if the title “Fairest” didn’t clue me in, there was really no hope.

Le sigh.

PS – Levine does a MUCH better job than Sir Maquire did, that’s for sure.

A picture of Hunter S. Thompson as a young chiseled man graces the front cover of this paperback, and all I have to say is, “Nice shorts.” Seriously, can we say ‘Richard Simmons’?

In the course of the several hours it took me to wait for my doctor’s appointment, I was able to read this from start to finish. I had borrowed this one from Ben, and it was a nice light distraction. It kind of petered out near the end, but the beginning scene where the narrator pens an old grumpy man to a window with a typewriter because he’s .. well old and grumpy. That right there was enough to make the book for me. If I could have used tactics like that on my last family vacation to Florida, I might have actually enjoyed the trip!

After seeing this one on countless bestseller and bookclub of the month lists, I decided to try it out knowing that such a touted memoir must be one which firmly knotted the old heart-strings.

Walls was the second oldest of her four siblings born to a college educated mother who was hellbent to never use her teaching degree as she was an Artiste and an alcoholic big-idea father. I did not think that any parents would frustrate me more than the mother in the novel, Towelhead (see Book #36) but oh how wrong I was. The children basically starved and lived in incredibly destitue dire circumstances (no electricity, no indoor plumbing, huge holes in the roof over where they slept, little to no food, no medical treatment on serious injuries, having their money stolen by their own parents, being molested by countless people including their own grandmother and uncle, having their father send them up with a man who he knew was going to make sexual advances on his young daughter, etc.) All by an educated couple who if they had put their own selfishness aside would have been able to support their children. In fact, the mother owned land worth over a million dollars which she refused to sell or even live on. Instead, her children starved.

It’s an intriguing memoir to read mostly because the way it is told. There’s no self pity or whining. It’s just laid out there. Of course, what was really sad was that I realized that I grew up with many children who were in same financial cirucumstances as I also grew up in the very rural Appalachian mountains. Unfortunately, I was about as thoughtless as the Walls classmates when it came to their struggle. That’s where the pain really hit for me.

Design = Oooooh.
Content = Meh

The boy has already made fun of me for reading this book so rest assure that has already been done.

Yes, this is a children’s middle school level horror book about bogarts and witches. Yes, the witches wear pointy shoes.
Yes, I’ve searched Style Hive for some pointy shoes for myself. Yes, I’m tired and first mistyped “wear” as “where.”
Yes, as soon as I publish this entry I am going to curl into the fetal position and cry out of shame.
And, yes, this is a really good scary book for that age level which I would highly recommend if anyone of that age group ever listened to an adult who wasn’t menacingly wielding a ruler or a sharp object.

I read the paperback edition, although I’m featuring the hardback cover here. Why? BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO SCARE PEOPLE AWAY WITH AN UGLY FLY. Why oh why did they choose that as the cover when they had a perfectly lovely one to start with? *shudders*

This one is a memoir, but more of a friendship than of a person. Now, other reviews and book descriptions speak of how it is based on Lucy Grealy. However, it really is more of the author’s friendship with Lucy than just one of them. (Although it obviously goes into biographical details of both women.) If you’ve ever had a really close relationship with another female, whether they were missing half of their face or not, it is a book which just seems to emotionally knock you down flat. It’s like a sucker punch to the tear ducts. You’ll love it, girls. Really.

1. This is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of this book (first done in 1956.) The CD which comes along with this is a TRIBUTE cd so there’s no actual singing by Billie Holiday – Boooo!

2. Billie Holiday was a bad ass who I wouldn’t want to have ever pissed off.

3. I really wish life, government, and a racist society hadn’t been such a bitch to her.