This continues and repeats itself so often that I wanted to smack Jamie at one point and tell her to get a grip. Not to mention the relationship with his sister bordered on creepy and slightly incestuous.įor most of the novel Jamie is simply following Fawn around and wondering to herself how she can love Fawn so much and aspire to be just like her when she really doesn't care for how she treats everyone else (herself included). I would think he would want to keep on eye Fawn at the very least, but he doesn't even seem aware the two girls sneak out every evening! It is interesting to note that the author mentions in an interview at the back of the book that Raymond was her favorite character, but I felt he was the most underdeveloped and "bland" out of everyone. The character spent most of the novel barely at home and out all night at bars, which doesn't seem terribly realistic when you are harboring a particularly wayward teenager who was just kicked out of her own home. I get that Suzette's dark path mirrors that of Fawn's (and possibly Jamie's), but I would have loved more interaction between Raymond and the girls in the present so that we get a sense of what he is reliving. Raymond barely exists in Jamie's present, a detail that drove me nuts, so I wasn't understanding exactly why his story was so relevant to the overall arc. McLain does add a side story revolving around Jamie's uncle Raymond and his relationship with Jamie's absent mother Suzette through a series of flashbacks, but I felt this "B" plot was more of a distraction than anything else. It's easy to guess that the two hit it off but Jamie is always playing second fiddle to the beautiful Fawn who leads her down a troubled path. I wouldn't say the adventures between Jamie and Fawn are anything we haven't read before: lonely, plain parent-less 15 year old girl living in a small town meets gorgeous long-lost cousin who is "bad news". Unfortunately, the story never quite gets interesting. Towards the second half, however, she lets go of the similes and adverbs and the pace and flow of the story picks up dramatically. I like poetry and I admire incredibly well-written literature, but this novel seemed to scream out "Hey, look at me! I know how to write!" so much that I became annoyed rather than in awe. I found "A Ticket to Ride" too florid and almost overwhelming in its beautiful poetic language for the first half of the novel that I was very close to putting it down for good. The tone and language in both books is COMPLETELY different. She wrote one of my favorite books from last year- "The Paris Wife"- and I'm finding it very hard to believe "A Ticket to Ride" is also by the same author. Paula McLain is a superb writer and poet, there is no doubt about that. I'm waffling between "I liked it" and "It was Ok". Hope for Jamie to use her experiences for the good. The saving grace of the painful content, is that Paula Maclain's writing is absolutely gorgeously beautiful, and something about the way she writes gives me hope and depth to Jamie. She had to grow up quickly, and and move from girl to young woman in a heartbeat. Because even though there is still and always a chance for Jamie to somehow start over, the consequences of that summer remain. Because the book is half about Jamie's mother, Raymond's sister Suzette. But for her Uncle Raymond, newly Jamie's foster parent, this is deja vu. The story is about that fateful summer, and all the consequences of when trouble comes to town, and a 15 year old is entranced by her cousin. When Fawn comes to stay with them, after having blown up her and others lives in another place, she quickly sets her sights on young Jamie. Its a coming of age story, where a motherless 15 year old falls under the entrancement of a 16 year old cousin, who is every ounce of trouble and danger. It's beautifully written, and the story itself is painful. It only 250 pages, and its reviews have been pretty standard threes.
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