Precious Trash

My Last innocent year by Daisy Alpert Florin

It’s like a glass of milk, fine, there’s a time and place for it, but forgettable. I wasn’t transported, just reading words on a page. 

Very similar in content to my dark Vanessa, except minus the beautiful writing and darkness. Isabel is bland and uninteresting, not someone I found myself rooting for. I didn’t always like Vanessa, but she stood out. I remember her.

Every once and a while a line would be interesting, then switch away. 

Why was this book written? What was it trying to say? I felt like I barely caught a whiff of the author’s voice, like it was paled into a grey nothing. I don’t always ask these questions, because usually it’s so obvious. This book was messy and not in a good drama way.

Also weird that the character sometimes thinks of her dad as Abe, mostly, actually. I found it a bit off putting, I expected a reason for it, especially since it’s only in her head that she swaps between Dad and Abe. 

It wasn’t anything special, nor a book I will remember anything about. It kind of reads like a book I’ve already read, but forgotten and am trying to remember if it’s worth continuing.

Nice, fine, but nothing noteworthy. 

I recall seeing someone say that they don’t read books set in new York and I couldn’t understand why. But this…and some others make me get it. But it’s not necessarily that it’s set in new York that’s my issue. It’s new York born authors, writing in new York, set in new York that went to school in new York. It feels very copy and paste and like it’s nothing original. (This could be any major metropolitan city, Toronto, London, etc). 

At least the book was pretty

3/5