How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

A Spoiler Free Bit About The Book

Daisy is sent off to the English countryside to live with her Aunt and cousins she hasn't even met.  But when war breaks out Daisy will have to learn how to survive and cope alone with only her cousins for company.

My Review

Funnily enough, I couldn't make this book sound good in my Spoiler Free Bit.  But the true blurb does sound good.  I guess that sums up my feelings for this book.  The rest of the world seemed to love it.  I hated it.  It was the most overrated book I've ever read before.  And I've read and hated Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

As you can imagine, this review is going to be the complete opposite from my last one which was just me going on about how much I loved The Fault In Our Stars.  This one is going to be me going on about how much I hated How I Live Now.

Where should I start . . . with the first thing that irritated me.  In chapter one, I might add.  The repetition of 'and'.  Christ.  And, and, and, was all that chapter one seemed to consist of.  I did this and then I did this and so-and-so did this with this and this and there was this and this and this.  You get the gist.  After three chapters of this I wanted to scratch my eyes out.  I wanted to scream.  I was wondering how long this incredibly short book would be if I took out all the 'ands'.

After I let this go, I found something just as annoying.  The Capitalisation Of Everything And Anything Possible.  I'm not exaggerating.  My favourite example is that Rosoff capitalised "Just In Case" and other such every day phrases as that.  They stuck out like a child's writing and every time my eyes drifted to one I wanted to groan aloud.  What is the need?  What does it add?  What does it prove?  Nothing.

As long term readers of this blog will know, I'm a character girl.  I'm in it for them and their journey, whatever the plot is.  During How I Live Now I learnt almost nothing about any of the characters.  There were a few bits and pieces on Daisy but that was it.  I never got any of their past or a hint of their dreams and motives.  I didn't understand them, I didn't know them, and consequently, didn't care about them even a tiny bit.  It could've been worse, I could've not liked them.  But I really didn't have enough information to hate them.  How bad it that?

Daisy.  Well.  Where do I even start with Daisy?  She has an issue with food and she was starving herself which made me incredibly angry because she didn't have anorexia.  I've read books with characters suffering from anorexia and Daisy was most certainly not suffering from it.  She just didn't eat.  Ever.  And was perfectly healthy and fine.  This is an insult.  At points it made being slim and not eating seem like the right thing to do which is a disgusting idea to put in a YA novel read by young girls.  

Also, she was supposed to be fifteen.  Her age was drilled into us again and again which was so irritating.  But it's probably because if you weren't reminded over and over you would forget because her 'voice' was not fifteen.  I was only fifteen four years ago and I can tell you I was more mature at fifteen than Daisy was.  My vocabulary was wider as was everyone's that I knew.  At fifteen you've started your GCSE's.  You are not naive.  You are not innocent.  Not really.  At most, Daisy was thirteen, at most.

The reported style didn't help at all.  I was an outsider at all times.  Uncomfortably distant.  I was just listening to a story that had happened long ago so all suspense was lost.  That and because I didn't care about the characters, I wasn't bothered about what happened to them anyway.

Rosoff repeatedly mentioned the 'magic' that was in the family but never went on to explain it in any detail.  In the end, there seemed to be not a lot of point for this at all.  And as a plot point stressed the whole way through, I felt as though I'd missed something when it turned out to be utterly useless.

And after all that, after everything that annoyed me during this book - which was everything - nothing even seemed to happen.  There was nothing going on that I was remotely interested in.  There was nothing drawing me to the page or even keeping me to the end of the sentence.  I read it to the end only because it was so short, but it never seemed to get going.  I have no idea where the draw was here.

It was critically acclaimed because it was a YA novel about the realities of war, nothing more.

Evaluation

Plot - 7/10 - a war story so it should've been better

Way Plot Was Pursued - 1/10 - for once, there's nothing good I can even try to say

Characters - 2/10 - they meant nothing to me and were nothing special

Style - 1/10 - boring and childish and repetitious

Pace - 8/10 - the pace wasn't bad.  Oh look, a good thing to say at last.

Would I recommend it? - No.  I would never recommend this book to anyone.

Would I look up the author? - No.  Not on your life.

How I Live Now was a horrible experience from start to finish.

Molly Looby

Author / Editor / Blogger / Reviewer / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly.looby@hotmail.com