Kiwie: So how did you like it?
Kat : It was okay, but not my favourite book ever, to put it like that. It was a bit slow a lot of the time.
Kiwie: Agreed, it wasn't bad in anyway, but not great either. A bit meh. I felt that we were waiting for something through the whole novel (which I admit we were, but her acceptance/rejection to that school or if she got out of New Orleans was not what I felt I was waiting for).
Kat: That's how I felt as well. It was as if the book never really started. We jumped into it in the middle, read for a bit and then it was over without anything ever happening. Sure, I got angry with her mum and felt sorry for the Josie, but her story wasn't really very exciting. And I had much higher expectations to the feel and mood of the book, being set in New Orleans. I know Josie didn't like the city, but I still felt that the book could have been set almost anywhere warm.
Kiwie: New Orleans was not a "character" the way you might be led to believe by the title... I wish it had been. I also felt that the gallery of characters were made to be inclusive of all people ever in a way, sometimes that was pointless. For instance the whole Stephen thing, Josie sort of liking him (as well as obviously being attracted to Jesse), but then he turns out to be gay. That was a bit of a cop-out, either make HER decide or leave the hint of a love-triangle out of the damn story!
Kat: Yes, you're right. I felt like a lot of things never really got resolved, people just left or died in the end.
Kiwie: Right, and then Willie just shipped Josie out to Shady Cove when things got messy and she hung out there and flirted a bit with Jesse and it was just very boring filler!
Kat: I know! I felt like the author could have done so much better, as the book was well written and the characters was fairly developed, it was the plot that fall short of my expectations.
Kiwie: The characters were nice, they had some depth and weren't all the same, and the writing wasn't bad at all, but the plot really wasn't exiting at all with the exception of a few times.
Kat: True. My mental health kind of went out the window as I was reading this and I was wondering if my inability to enjoy the book was directly linked to that, but now I think not. The book was really not what it could have been, but I didn't hate it.
Kiwie: Also all the characters were either good or bad, even if Josie had complicated feelings towards her mother she was always bad, and even though Willie (in addition to being a madam) clearly wasn't "good" in the traditional sense she was always the good guy.
Kat : I almost wish I did hate it, because then at least I would care more about the book!
Kiwie: To sum it up: Meh.
Kat: Yeah. I don't really think it's much else to say about this book. Good it wasn't longer
Kiwie: No, which is sad, because I really wanted to like it, I just don't.
Kat: Me too.
