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Title: Barely worth it
Review: I was never as in love with "Secret Life of Bees" as the rest of the world -- a lot of it just seemed impossible, given the historical period -- so I came to this book with low expectations. Which were fulfilled much more than I expected."Bees" at least had some beautiful writing and interesting characters. The writing in this is watered down, and the characters are flat. Very little about them is original. The monk lost his pregnant wife in a car crash? Trite. Wife in a mid-life crisis, feeling unloved and unrecognized? Ho hum. Daughter carrying lifelong guilt for father's death? The same.The problem was, none of the characters came to life, so I couldn't care about their problems -- which weren't that original anyway. The mother, lopping off fingers? That was never really explained adequately.The only thing I give this book points for is the ambiguous ending, which is realistic and refreshing. Otherwise, a big bore.
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