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HELLO BEAUTIFUL
Ann Napolitano
Random House Publishing Group | The Dial Press
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
400 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon
I read and loved Dear Edward a few years ago, it was my first foray into this author’s work and it was brilliant. This title left me a little disappointed. I do like a slow burn but this book was way too slow for my liking, especially the beginning. I will also say this took me four days to read and that is saying something coming from one who devours books. I almost did not finish it but decided to persist. It did get better. I am surprised I didn’t like it more because this is Ann Napolitano’s version of Little Women and that is one of my favourite books. This one had a soap opera feel to it.
I liked that the book deals with issues of mental health in a realistic way and I felt for William, but I had trouble connecting to any of the characters other than feeling bad for them I felt nothing else. I did like that William found the strength to fight his demons. This is a very character-driven story and when you don’t connect with the characters in any way it makes it a slog to get through. I think part of the problem was William’s basketball playing didn’t interest me at all. As much as I think that Napolitano is a beautiful writer this one just didn’t do much for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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