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240th out of 274 books
—
62 voters
Innocence
by
Jane Mendelsohn (Goodreads Author)
Bookseller Reviews
A strong novel by author of I Am Amelia Earhart. Though only fourteen years old, Beckett leads a life that most adults would consider daunting. Living with her widowed father in New York City, she sees herself perpetually on the edge of the world she surveys; an outsider peering in at cynical teachers and the "in-crowd" of Beautiful Girls. Drawn to an omn
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published
August 28th 2000
by Riverhead Hardcover
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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A dark, morbid book that sucks you in and before you know it you find yourself in a world vivid with emotions. Out of instinct i picked this out in our mini-lib at school. I didn't plan on sticking to it but the first chapter enthralled me and I just got to finish it.
Jane had managed to spike my curiosity. This is a very Gothic read that are really not recommended for emo or easily depressed people. The writing is simple yet enchanting. I find myself struggling to understand what is going on on...more
Jane had managed to spike my curiosity. This is a very Gothic read that are really not recommended for emo or easily depressed people. The writing is simple yet enchanting. I find myself struggling to understand what is going on on...more
All right, I vowed not to do this sort of thing until after the year was up, but I’m going to tell you how I came upon this book. Because I think it’s pertinent to my opinion and this review. I bought this at Goodwill. It’s a hardback with no dust jacket—nothing to tell me what it was about. It’s about diary-sized, which appealed to me. I flipped through it and the format made me wince, which for some reason, is something else that appealed to me. Lastly, the author’s name reminds me of Gregor M...more
This was just a random book I found on a library shelf that looked like an interesting read about a teenager in a dark, gothic-esque coming of age in a new, unknown environment. It didn’t turn out to be anything like what I expected it to be. The book is full of beautiful, vivid and powerful imagery and metaphor. It has a constant, pulsing forward momentum that captivates the reader and pulls them through to the end. But with a book that begins with the narrator admitting that they are in essenc...more
This is one of those books that after you read it you think, hmm, did what I think happen HAPPEN or was it all in the heroine's head...or my head?! A little Turn of the Screw-ish in that sense, I suppose. We have a young girl who has just lost her mother to a car accident who is moved to a new school by her father. He's hoping that by moving them to the bright shiny city, he'll distract them both from their grief. But Beckett (is that NOT just the most faboo name!)can't fit in with all the Beaut...more
My aunt gave me this book. I read the cover flap and was like oh hey, seems like an awesome book. I WAS SO CONFUSED AT FIRST. No punctuation marks didn't really bother me, but it would have helped. It was written like a poem in a way. It starts out as a teen with problems and turns to tampon sucking vampires. Wth, I know, right?
I want more books!
**SPOILERS**
In the beginning Beckett loses her mom and is living with her dad. Shes at school and meets the school nurse, Pamela, who met Becketts dad a...more
I want more books!
**SPOILERS**
In the beginning Beckett loses her mom and is living with her dad. Shes at school and meets the school nurse, Pamela, who met Becketts dad a...more
Really, really different. The book is written in intense, broken snippets. Paragraphs may be only one sentence, quotation marks are not used, and although the book has just under 200 pages it has over 50 chapters.
The book is allegorical. The things the narrator, Beckett, sees and experiences are representative of how she feels about the changes going on in her life: her mother dies, she starts a new school, her dad meets and marries someone new, etc. We never really know if the events taking pl...more
The book is allegorical. The things the narrator, Beckett, sees and experiences are representative of how she feels about the changes going on in her life: her mother dies, she starts a new school, her dad meets and marries someone new, etc. We never really know if the events taking pl...more
I picked this up and finished in under 4hours. It is written in almost a lyrical prose and is a disturbing and haunting novel. It had a feel of The Turn of the Screw and a hint of Catcher in the Rye. The imagery in the writing was quite different from any other I had read lately and I found that the descriptions of skies and textures were right on when I closed my eyes and tried to imagine exactly what Mendelsohn was painting: examples would be nighttime images of water as liquid mercury, skies...more
This is the worst book I have ever read. I'm more ashamed to have this on my shelf than Twilight, and I think that speaks volumes. At least this book came out BEFORE vampires were cool. I wish I could give this book negative stars while simultaneously burning down the Barnes & Noble where I found it on the clearance table. I was book-poor and money-poor back then. Thank goodness I don't have to read trash like this anymore. Everything is completely horrible in this book. The characters, the...more
I can't believe this is YA fiction. I loved every minute of this! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much. There's so much here too; it's just so good I can't stop thinking about it. Even if you ignore the deeper meanings and take this book at face value, it's worth every star for the story alone. Deliciously gross and twisty, I didn't want to stop till I finished. I really enjoyed the author's writing style; it was concise and vivid. This one gave me the creeps and kept me turni...more
As a writer, this book has forever changed the way i look at my own work. the way Mendelsohn uses metaphors, descriptions of reality, character study, plot development and even her dialogue have reshaped the way i look at all types of media, from books, to movies, to music and art. My emotions towards this book are hard to put into words, but this dark hearted and genuinely bittersweet piece of work is what i recommend to any of those who want a read that allows no assumptions to be fulfilled an...more
Sep 14, 2007
Shannon
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of dark coming-of-age fiction
Shelves:
fiction
This was a good find.
Fantastic!
Jun 20, 2011
Susan
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
young women, fans of bildungsroman
Shelves:
2011read,
mycollection
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The imagery is striking; the author describes things I have thought of but not been able to put words to. At the same time, it's almost too much, too overwhelming, and the plot is just vague enough to be confusing as it is nuanced. I sometimes hated the main character before seeing her as a victim, and I had the feeling I was supposed to react to her that way. This book is eye-opening, dizzying, horrifying, befuddling, brave, beautiful, and cliche all at the same time.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
such a great book! A MUST-READ! really well written, fascinating story, strong characters...Mendelsohn employs the element of the supernatural in such an interesting, different way. plus, she keeps you guessing until the very end. i LOVED it, and can't believe more people haven't read this book. and now, they're making a movie! everyone should check it out!
To this day, this is still my favorite book. I bought it for a quarter at a yard sale when I was a teenager and I have read it hundreds of times since then. I love the way she writes the story. It's different. It's almost like poetry. The plot was good for those who like easy-to-read stories and it was enjoyable as well.
This is one of the most confusing books I have ever read; however, with that being said, I loved it. Medelsohn makes teen-age angst, depression, suicide and the spiralling into madness lyrically beautiful. The commentary of current culture is also insightful. It is a book to read over and over.
Really really scary and disturbing. I bought this book from a flea market for $2 and what a find! I was drawn to the whole 'is she insane or is this scary thing really happening??' idea. Well-played, and I'm still not altogether sure what the answer is, but i really liked this book.
Any book that opens with a wet girl asking for sex you know has to be good. Different, chilling, and sad. With relationship between the girl and the mother was so hard to picture. Very wonderful read. Dont pass this book up!
This book is pretty bad. It's basically a short story stretched out into novel length, with large print and big spacing. It reads like a pretentious high school student wrote it, trying to write literary horror or something.
The imagery used in this novel is phenomenal. I was a little confused at first over what was real and what wasn't, but once I hit about page 10, I couldn't put it down. I would recommend it to just about anyone. Very pretty language inside.
Interesting, fast read. A little strange at times. I REALLY wish I had read this when it first came out instead of now. I might have enjoyed it more were the culture not so obsessed with a similar topic.
Jun 22, 2009
Cyndi
added it
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I read this book very quickly in the hopes of getting an explanation as to what exactly was happening. I decided in the end that the girl was schizophrenic. It was a very strange read. I enjoyed it.
really weird book. but a super fast read. it kept me interested because i wasn't quite sure what was going on, and i kept thinking that if i read a little more it would clarify everything. it kind of did. but like i said very weird
Very mind-boggling. Very interesting. Even I had to pause every once in a while to take note of certain phrases I found meaningful or, believe it or not, relevant.
I love the world of the UES, like Gossip Girl or Cruel Intentions or even Twelve.. The language in this book is like lyrics, and it is beautiful. I think that I have stopped demanding finite realism in my pop culture, but this book drove me a bit crazy; there were almost two ways of looking at it.
Strong narrator, poetically written, pretty short (only 3 and a half hours on audiobook). But I really have no idea what it is: negotiating the dangerous passage between girlhood and womanhood, certainly, but possibly also blood lust/rites.
Enter at your own risk.
Enter at your own risk.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| "Innocence" by Jane Mendelsohn being turned into a movie! | 2 | 6 | Feb 11, 2013 03:41pm |
Jane Mendelsohn was born and raised in New York City. She is a graduate of Yale.
She is the author of three novels: the best-selling I Was Amelia Earhart, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and Innocence, and American Music. Published to wide acclaim by Knopf in 2010, American Music is now out in paperback from Vintage.
More about Jane Mendelsohn...
She is the author of three novels: the best-selling I Was Amelia Earhart, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and Innocence, and American Music. Published to wide acclaim by Knopf in 2010, American Music is now out in paperback from Vintage.
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Apr 21, 2009 08:48pm