Synopsis:
Amelia: young, naive, in love. Geoff: charming, narcissistic, intelligent. In a decidedly European affair, a young couple consummates a courtship destined for differences. The resultant pregnancy provides a haunting yet charming backdrop for the challenges of love and its often unwanted decisions.
In the first person and in a creative journal style, author Abigail Calkin explores three choices that Amelia can make—give birth, give the baby up for adoption, or abortion. The resultant exploration and mature reflection provides a unique and rich literary backdrop for the choices each young woman faces when pregnant.
In the first person and in a creative journal style, author Abigail Calkin explores three choices that Amelia can make—give birth, give the baby up for adoption, or abortion. The resultant exploration and mature reflection provides a unique and rich literary backdrop for the choices each young woman faces when pregnant.
My Thoughts:
*This review contains spoilers and a rant. Please read at your own risk*
Amelia Gifford is twenty years old and in college. Here she meets Geoff, also a student, and they begin an affair. After a short time together, Amelia becomes pregnant and is forced to decide if she will keep her baby, give it up for adoption, or have an abortion.
Have you ever turned the last page in a book and thought to yourself "huh?" Well unfortunately, that is how I felt after reading The Carolyne Letters. It was not at all what I was expecting and I was left feeling quite confused. When I first heard about this story I was anxious to read it. I wanted to know Amelia's story and see what decision she comes to and why. Sadly, I didn't get any of the answers I needed.
The story begins with a very short glimpse into Geoff's life a few years before he meets Amelia. He is dating a woman named Rebekah and he isn't happy. He's cheating on her and doesn't feel badly about it at all. He remarks about Rebekah's weight and how she is strangling him emotionally. I didn't like him immediately.
The story then jumps ahead two years and the story is from now on told in journal format by Amelia. It's been two years since her father and young brother have passed away and she is still struggling with their deaths. She has just started taking college courses and spends a lot of her time writing in her journal about philosophy and other subjects. Then she and Geoff meet in class and begin their affair. She becomes pregnant and her journal is used as a way to tell us how she is feeling and what decision she will come to about the baby and why.
Only it doesn't. After reading the first third of this book and watching Amelia make her decision, I turned the page to have the story start all over again. In this second part, Amelia makes a different choice. Then comes a third part where she makes another decision. We aren't told which story is how things ended or which path Amelia chose and I was left extremely angry. I was confused when things started over the first time and just plain mad when they started the third. I wanted to know Amelia's true story and I didn't hear that. I heard three separate realities but no answer as to which was real.
This may not have bothered me so much if I wasn't already upset with the characters. I knew right away that I hated Geoff but I was really surprised to find myself not liking Amelia either. She came off as spoiled and snobby. I just couldn't relate to her. There were times I wanted to just jump into this book so I could smack her silly, especially when she wrote about seeing a toddler on the street and wanting to "hit him, to knock him over, to crush his skull, to trample him to death."
In other parts of the book she goes on to describe how awful Rebekah is because she jealous that Amelia is sleeping with Geoff and how she has no reason to be because "no one has a reason to be jealous except out of their own insecurities and dependencies." How do you expect a person to feel when their boyfriend of five years is sleeping with another woman and getting her pregnant? I don't think I'd be all rainbows and lollipops about it and want to befriend that person.
I think it's pretty safe to say that this book just wasn't for me. I just couldn't relate to the characters and I couldn't force myself to care about what happened to them. I didn't get the answers I needed and I was left feeling angry about the choices they made. Maybe it was because this story took place in the early 1960's and things were much different back then, but I still have a feeling I wouldn't have been able to connect with the characters had they been current.
Overall, I was sadly disappointed in The Carolyne Letters. I think this book would be greater appreciated by those who like heavier, descriptive reads, or those who don't mind reading about not-so-likable characters.
For more about Abigail B. Calkin and The Carolyne Letters, visit her website here.
Purchase:
*I received this book for free in exchange of my honest review. This did not influence my opinion in any way and all views and opinions expressed are 100% my own.
Interesting. I read another review of this book the other day and the reviewer didn't mention it was split into three different parts. I like books written through letters and journals, but this sounds like you're reading the same story three times, with a different ending each time. It's like choose your own adventure gone bad.
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