Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise GornallMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I could really appreciate that this book does focus on mental illness and self-harm as a central issue in Norah's life. This wasn't just one of those books when she met a guy and two minutes later she is all cured and ready to face the world.My problem is with how an agoraphobic who couldn't take a step outside, suddenly one month later is going outside with her boyfriend. So from that perspective the love angle rushed the healing journey, which could have been portrayed at a slower pace.
The author already has a unique writing style, but she tried too hard. There were so many descriptive metaphors and flowery language and adjective that I kept on having the impulse of just editing out those sentences or skipping through them. An overabundance just never seems to be well-written to me.
The romance for me was super awkward and I didn't think that they had the chemistry between them that authors strive for couples to have. Norah had really high and unrealistic expectations for Luke and he really did appear to be too "perfect and cliche" for my taste. Another issue that I had was there was the "popular girl, cheerleader, flirt, perfect queen" character who was going after the love interest and had absolutely no character substance. Like at this point, having read a lot of romance novels, it really does get on my nerves when this type of narrow stereotypical girl is used just as a plot device. Aren't we over repeating that?
I didn't personally connect to the character of Norah, because I felt like the readers sometimes get too deep and too close inside her head, to the point where I had to put the book down because it was making me anxious, therefore lessening the pleasure of my reading experience overall. I did have to put the book down several times, and I felt like the author could have down a step back and switched it up with another character's perspective in 3rd persons (her moms, her therapists, Luke,etc.) so that it could be a refresher. Maybe the author was too close emotionally to this issue and could have made more distance between her experiences and Norah's.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in order for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
View all my reviews
Interesting! I'm worried about what you said there, that her healing journey just fast-forwards because of the romance. That's exactly what I thought didn't happen :( And the other clichés are also disappointing, especially the popular girl as an antagonist. Well, I'll still have to read it to know exactly how I feel about it, but it was nice seeing this review among the sea of 5 star ones!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I first read and reviewed this book in October, as you see so I didn't actually known that it was going to be such a favorite on many people's list. I guess that I'm just ok with having an unpopular opinion for this specific instance.:)
DeleteI've heard similar criticisms for the overabundant metaphors used in this story from some close friends as well. It wasn't that big of a factor for me (as I took it as part of the world building re: agoraphobia and internalization) but I definitely see where you're coming from.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't even begin to speak about the troublesome third angle of the love triangle because it would have certainly been a paragraph (or two) or "but why" haha, so I'm glad you got that covered for me.
In any case, I'm still happy people enjoyed this novel. I'm still unsure if it's a case of me-not-you but maybe I'll reflect on this in a years time when I'm not so emotionally invested in the terribly plotted ending...
Cheers,
Joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts.
Thank you! Yeah, I am glad that people enjoyed this novel as well :)
Delete