Tuesday, May 21, 2013

My One Square Inch of Alaska by Sharon Short

I'm heading to Alaska soon so I thought I would interlibrary loan some titles that I found on Goodreads.com.  This was a book that took me forever to read. Why? Because it wasn't very well written.

Donna is a high school student in the 1950's who takes care of her younger brother because her mom is dead and her dad is a drunk.  She dreams of being a fashion designer and re-works her mom's old dresses into clothing items for herself.  When her little brother becomes seriously ill, the two take off to find her brother's one square inch of Alaska that he won in a cereal box contest.

The above plot line could be a great novel. Unfortunately, they don't leave on the trip until the very end of the book.  Too much of the book is about the boyfriend, the art teacher, and some other minor characters that the reader doesn't really care about.  I still feel like I never got to know Donna.  She wasn't a consistent character, even though she tells the story in first person. She made strange choices (like the pills) that didn't seem like choices she would make, given that her she didn't respect her best friend or father for making bad choices.  Some things just didn't ring true and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot in the middle and end of the book.

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