Monday 23 March 2009

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Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

How I Live Now by Meg RosoffHow I Live Now by Meg Rosoff - Rosoff’s story begins in modern day London, slightly in the future, and as its heroine has a 15-year-old Manhattanite called Daisy. She’s picked up at the airport by Edmond, her English cousin, a boy in whose life she is destined to become intricately entwined. Daisy is staying for the summer in her Aunt Penn’s country farmhouse with Edmond and her other cousins. They spend some idyllic weeks together--often alone with Aunt Penn away travelling in Norway. Daisy’s cousins seem to have an almost telepathic bond, and Daisy is mesmerised by Edmond and soon falls in love with him.

But their world changes forever when an unnamed aggressor invades England and begins a years-long occupation. Daisy is parted from Edmond when soldiers take over their home, and Daisy and Piper, her younger cousin, must travel to another place to work. Their experiences of occupation are never kind and always hard. Daisy’s pain, living without Edmond, is tangible.
From Amazon UK

Did I like this book? I don't think so. It has rave reviews but it just... dragged. The sentences are so difficult to read I guess it's supposed to be written as if a 15 year old is writing it but the sentences are far too long, and the grammer and punctuation - or lack of it - just wound me up. You're kind of compelled to keep reading, as it reads like "something is going to happen you don't want to miss", but The Big Event you can sense never arrives. Most of it was too sketchy for my tastes, with not enough detail about what was happening before it moved on to something else. Part Two of the book, which is practically the very end, things start to get better. Daisy is older and now knows how to write, but then it just abruptly ends. It was pretty disappointing, all in all.



Published: 2005
Publisher: Penguin Books
Buy on Amazon.com
Meg Rosoff's Website

Other Reviews on How I Live Now:
Things Mean A Lot
In Search of Giants
Leafing Through Life

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