A Separate Peace by John Knowles

SPOILERS BE HERE

Let's cut to the chase: I didn't like it. I can see why others like it but it wasn't for me. I think listening to the audiobook may have been a mistake here—the narrator wasn't very compelling so my mind drifted quite a bit—but I still don't think I would have liked it very much if I had read it.

The characters didn't resonate with me one bit. I thought they were boring, fairly one-dimensional, and I just plain didn't like them. Events seemed to come out of nowhere too. That one guy (I don't have the book so can't look up names and don't care enough to Google them) going AWOL and suddenly having mental health issues. The main guy admitting to Phineas he jostled him out of the tree but then reneging and trying to convince everyone otherwise. Phineas DYING. I get it, that's the point of the book. Parallels between war changing people and them experiencing that at school, blah blah blah. It just didn't strike a chord with me. I can't think of a single part I even liked.

Completed: 30 November 2020

Rating: 2/5 (only because I can see the appeal even if it didn't appeal to me)

Recommend: No

Comments

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