"The masterpiece of one of young-adult literature's greatest living writers."--"Booklist," starred review
Using a pillow book as her form, nine... read full description
Using a pillow book as her form, nine... read full description
reviews
Sep 25, 2007
Shelley
rated it: 
I cannot believe I actually read this book. Okay, I kind of skimmed the first few hundred pages. But I was so sucked into Cordelia's story that I read the remaining six hundred. (Mostly after midnight and in increments of 150-200 pages. Damn two week check outs.)
It's not a book I'd have thought I'd like. The writing style is kind of lyrical at times, and I have limited patience for writing like that. There's also the a/b page phenomenon, which was odd. (I preferred the b pages.) As o More...
It's not a book I'd have thought I'd like. The writing style is kind of lyrical at times, and I have limited patience for writing like that. There's also the a/b page phenomenon, which was odd. (I preferred the b pages.) As o More...
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Jul 06, 2007
Kitsuchi
rated it: 
I was thinking about this again as I'm reading The Pillow Book that serves partly as its inspiration. I liked the way it used a variety of writings to tell the story - not just the protagonist Cordelia's diary, but her essays, musings and 'mopes' - the latter being poetry of debatable quality. It was a lovely book. Cordelia could be annoying, and sometimes seemed too sort of well-adjusted liberal in her attitudes towards sex and her body to be real, but it's hard to tell if that was unrealistic
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(4 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2008
April
rated it:
Fascinating, raw, uncensored thoughts of a teenage girl, as written by an adult man. Suprisingly, he gets a lot of things right. I enjoyed this book simply because the character development was fabulous, and the story telling was honest and sincere. The book's format was also intriguing, not at all chronological, it jumps all over the place but is still cohesive. A book about falling in love and discovering oneself. I will read it again and again.
Jun 25, 2007
Sarah
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Loooooooooooonggggggg! Confusing part in the middle where you have to read all the left pages in order and then go back to read all the right pages in order. Sad sad sad ending. The thing that really screwed up this book for me was the fact that it was really hard to read because the binding on the hardback wouldn't break so it was hard to hold with just one hand.
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 03, 2007
Gizmology
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I was loving this book -- the first section about her developing relationship with the boy she's decided to lose her virginity to was great -- all the anxiety and excitement and fear of it rang really true to me. BUT then there's THAT PART that everyone mentions, where there are suddenly two parallel storylines, A and B, for more than a hundred pages, like page 191-A, page 192-B, 193-A, 194-B, etc.etc., so you have to decide whether to go back and forth or read all of A and THEN all of B... AAAA
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 26, 2010
Shannon
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My first impression: This book is so long I'm never going to finish it. It will go by so slow.
Impression when I finished the book: How did that go by so fast?!
If you're concern is with the length of the book, don't be. I'm notorious for ending books halfway through and never finishing them, even fairly short ones. But this one kept me drawn in. I absolutely loved the characters, except for...Cordelia Kenn. I know, it's horrible to hate the main character but she was so completely More...
Impression when I finished the book: How did that go by so fast?!
If you're concern is with the length of the book, don't be. I'm notorious for ending books halfway through and never finishing them, even fairly short ones. But this one kept me drawn in. I absolutely loved the characters, except for...Cordelia Kenn. I know, it's horrible to hate the main character but she was so completely More...
Aug 03, 2010
kristina
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I first picked up this book when a male friend recommended it to me. I've encountered bits and pieces of it through him and when I first went to pick up the book, its size astonished me. When I began to read it, my astonishment only grew - a book with a female narrator, practically spilling herself into these books/boxes that she kept? At sixteen, I instantly liked it, and fell in love with Cordelia. This book immediately became a big source of inspiration for me; I loved the way she could jump
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Nov 09, 2009
Beth
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The pillow book is actually more than one volume: journals of most intimate musings, modeled after a Japanese pillow book that Cordelia's friend Izumi gives her. The premise is that motherless Cordy, nineteen and pregnant, is recording the trials and tribulations of her young adulthood, mostly concerning her first lover, Will, and plans to give them to her daughter when she turns 16, so they can share them. The books are incredibly thoughtful; a poet wannabe, Cordy's voice is that of a gifted wr
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Apr 29, 2009
Hallie
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I hesitated between three and four stars for this book. On the one hand, it had some excellent qualities: sheer length (~800 pages) without becoming dull, for the most part well-developed characters, a non-linear structure that is intriguing and ends up mostly making sense, and the fact that a middle-aged man successfully and convincingly pulled off a first-person narrative in the character of a teenage girl. On the other hand, while not as creepily all-consuming as Twilight, this novel's love s
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 16, 2009
Meredith
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Apr 03, 2011
Jackie
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Jan 26, 2011
V.
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Apr 03, 2009
Julia
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The idea behind the story is that Cordeila is compiling a book for her unborn daughter from diaries/writings about her life from the age 15. It tells of incidents of Cordeila growing up, falling in love for the first time, d dealing with life changes, befriending an English teacher who become her spiritual guide, etc....and in the proccess of describing events goes off into tangets about her thoughts about writing, books, people, sex, memory, friendship, Shakespeare, spirituality, and a lot more
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Jan 14, 2011
Lizz
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I am halfway through this book. Took a break to reread "Annie on My Mind" because I needed something I could blitz through. I figured I owe Melody the start of a review.
This is a very complex book, in so many ways. It would be very, actually too, easy to say this book annoyed you or lost you or bogged you down in poetic paragraphs that boiled down to making one simple point. Aha! If you say that and are annoyed, then you are missing the point. Or burned your teen years jou More...
This is a very complex book, in so many ways. It would be very, actually too, easy to say this book annoyed you or lost you or bogged you down in poetic paragraphs that boiled down to making one simple point. Aha! If you say that and are annoyed, then you are missing the point. Or burned your teen years jou More...
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May 18, 2009
Claudia
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"When I've read a book which I really like,a book which MATTERS, I feel it belongs to me." Cordelia is NOT talking about THIS IS ALL, but that's the way we all feel while and after reading this amazing book. Cordelia is organizing her journals and 'pillow books' as a gift to her unborn daughter. She wants the baby to know her mother and father as young people, how they met and fell in love, what tore them apart, and what ultimately brings them together again. Cordelia is wise, passiona
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 29, 2010
Aileen
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I honestly don't think there will ever be a book that not only captures the essence of girls, but is also the most heart-wrenching and tear inducing book I will ever read. This book starts off when Cordelia Kenn is only 15. 808 pages later she is twenty and two months old. The reader, girl or boy, learns more about life, love, girls, friendship, relationships, basically everything you can imagine. Though this was a work of fiction, I have never felt closer to a character. One of the best parts o
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Mar 21, 2009
|
rated it:
This is one of the thickest books I've ever conquered in such short time. But Aidan Chambers makes it such an easy read. I fell in love with his main characters, as I suppose was the intention. It reads as a diary, from a girl who is astoundingly committed to maintaining it. I envy her for her determination. The ending is abrupt and unfair, but then again so is life. Point made.
I must admit it is almost insulting how much Aidan Chambers understands about young females. We More...
I must admit it is almost insulting how much Aidan Chambers understands about young females. We More...
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 01, 2009
Shaya
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This book has stuck with me. I loved the realism in it. Maybe it's the format but it seemed so much more realistic that this could actually have happened to someone than almost any other realistic fiction book I've read. Or the thoughts were releastic, perhaps? The book's honesty is very refressing. The characters are flawed but they mostly try to do the right thing. I didn't mind the slower parts of the book or the mundane parts, the story sucked me in and I was perfectly happy to go along with
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Feb 06, 2011
Kaylee
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This book is long but worth it. Chambers is not afraid to tell you exactly what is going on in Cordelia Kenn's life. Here life is laid to bare for you and it is easy to connect with. She struggles with what she wants to do, and her boyfriends pushy mother. The book is intended for her unborn child (her daughter if i recall correctly) and she address the read as such. It makes everything much more personal. This character just comes to life. I want to write a character so believable that I forget
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Jun 24, 2010
Olivetree
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This is one of those books that I could not put down. All 800 pages, done in a day and a half. It's such a clear, whole picture of one person, from the inside out, and I liked the balance Chambers created by writing it in first person - it didn't make it quite a diary format, but it painted the full picture of Cordelia.
Lots of people will complain about the length, but I thought it was necessary. This book is ALL of Cordelia, little ramblings to huge long narrative lengths. It's all More...
Lots of people will complain about the length, but I thought it was necessary. This book is ALL of Cordelia, little ramblings to huge long narrative lengths. It's all More...
Oct 18, 2010
Xayide
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Jan 11, 2009
Erica
rated it:
With unique presentation, Aidan Chambers beautifully sets up the story of Cornelia Funke, a nineteen year old soon-to-be mother who writes in a large journal-type book about her experiences since the age of sixteen. She writes religiously each new moment and hopes to give her work to her daughter on her own sixteenth birthday. Inspired by a Japanese poem, the pillow book in which Cornelia dedicates herself to is design as a place to release feelings and thoughts of any sort. Cornelia takes reade
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Jun 09, 2011
This is a novel contains the compilation of diaries written by a pregnant teenager to her unborn child. These diaries include things that are important to Cordelia (Main Character), but focus primarily on her sexual frustration/encounters with the father of her unborn child, but include her relationship with a married man and strangers. The story also touches on dysfunctional family/friend relationships. This book is explicit and raw, and contains parts that are not appropriate for the young adu
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Mar 27, 2010
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I'd read another of Aidan Chambers' books Postcards From No Man's Land, and loved it.
As I began reading it, I remembered beginning it at another time, and not finishing it - or even getting very far. I skimmed along for a while before I skipped ahead to read the final pages. They caught my attention, so I basically skimmed the rest of the book to see how they got from point A to point B. It should have been better and emotionally involving More...
As I began reading it, I remembered beginning it at another time, and not finishing it - or even getting very far. I skimmed along for a while before I skipped ahead to read the final pages. They caught my attention, so I basically skimmed the rest of the book to see how they got from point A to point B. It should have been better and emotionally involving More...
Jun 28, 2011
T e s n i
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I honestly have no idea where I ought to start. I've spent the last week entirely engrossed in This is All, and now I finished it's like all I can do is completely fangirl over it and want to re-read the whole thing over and over again.
It's like a journey in some respects, that begins when Cordelia is fifteen and ends when she's about twenty. The book is her life, and the reader is like her shadow so it kind of becomes a part of theirs, too.
At some points in the book More...
It's like a journey in some respects, that begins when Cordelia is fifteen and ends when she's about twenty. The book is her life, and the reader is like her shadow so it kind of becomes a part of theirs, too.
At some points in the book More...
Sep 14, 2011
Rebecca
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This book is truly amazing. Ipicked it up in the library and thought it would be some trashy quick (well, quick for the length of it) read about a pregnant girl; oh no, it was much more than that!
Cordelia is a very complex character and though this could put some people off, but drew me in. Part of the charm of the book being so long is that by the end you've read so much about her that she really seems real, you can even imagine her reactions in different situations... or I can at lea More...
Cordelia is a very complex character and though this could put some people off, but drew me in. Part of the charm of the book being so long is that by the end you've read so much about her that she really seems real, you can even imagine her reactions in different situations... or I can at lea More...
Oct 06, 2008
Tortla
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I didn't think I'd like this, but I kind of do in spite of myself. I expected the writing to be boring and horrible (like what I remember from Postcards from No-Man's Land or whatever that horribly uninteresting book was), but I found it was actually quite easy to like and relate to the characters, and the format (even though it's jumpy and weird and--especially with the A B switching part, which I've just gotten to--kind of frustrating at times) helps keep such a long book from becoming tedious
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Sep 11, 2011
Perdita
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I loved this book. It took me awhile before I finally read all of it, but I loved how honest, personal, and poetic it was. Sometimes it's a little obvious it's a guy behind the girl writing because some of the scenes seem kind of like male-fantasies. Still a wonderful read if you want to be completely in a characters head, and I recommend it.
Feb 01, 2009
Imogen
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I haven't actually finished this yet but so far its really really good! Cordelia Kenn is 16 and its about her life and especially she and her boyfriend Will. Cordelia writed this for her child when she is 19. And its a mature book and talks about sex a lot but its talks about other stuff and has some really deep ideas in it.
Apr 14, 2009
Dorie
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This book changed my life. It was so inspiring! After reading it, I too have begun to keep a pillow book, and it has made me a much more down-to-earth person. It's long, and the Orange book is hard to finish since it is nothing but lists (But it was fun for me, I LOVE lists.). My favorite book OF ALL TIME.
