I know there are many people out there who adore this story of the four March sisters. I'm not one of them."I think books shouldn't be one word longer than they need to be (a judgement, I realize, that is horrifically subjective in execution). I like nice, tight stories." - Shannon Hale (from her blog)
I think Shannon Hale is right on the money. Books should only be as long as they need to be to tell the story. Little Women is 472 pages long; if it had been cut in half it would have been a much better story! The book was too long, too wordy, too boring, with much too much detail. Entire chapters could have been removed, and the resulting book would have been so much better. Yes, that's how I feel...
Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are the sisters in the book. Honestly, I don't think I had a favorite of the four. They all annoyed me at times. My favorite character was actually Laurie. I'm sad that Jo didn't love him as more than a friend. I'm glad he found his happily ever after, even though it wasn't with Jo.
After days and days spent reading this book (I even took a break from reading Little Women to read Change of Heart because LW bored me too much), when I finally finished it, the first words out of my mouth were "Hallelujah, it's over!" I couldn't wait for the book to end. Sure, there were some good parts that actually held my interest, but they were very few and far between. Sorry to all you Little Women lovers. I cannot count myself among your number.
2.5/5 (and the 18th crossed off the list of the 100 Greatest Novels)
