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Aug 31, 2011

Terri rated it:

The Bride's Farewell is set in mid-19th century Wiltshire and tells the story of runaway bride Pell. Pell's family is trapped in hopeless poverty, while her husband-to-be Bridie comes from a family that is "hard-working, honest and resourceful". They have been friends since childhood and it's assumed that they will be married one day, but Pell looks at her mother, exhausted from childbearing and disappointment, and rejects the future she represents. Because she can't bring herself to r More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2011

Anne rated it:

Beautifully sparce, unsentimental writing. Hauntingly stoic characters, taking charge of their own destinies. Complex plot, rather like a rough roundabout: characters get on, fall by the wayside, meet up again...all have a part to play in Pell's story. And the romance....so understated (we never learn what the Dogman's name is!) Pell & he are perfect equals – working quietly alongside each other. No expectations, no force. Rather like animals sharing their existence. Actually the whole novel dep More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2011

Debbie rated it:

I think both the picture on the cover and the cover blurbs do this rather remarkable and extremely UN-romantic novel a disservice. They make it sound like a rollicking, romantic romp, and those who come to it with those expectations will be sorely disappointed. I admit to beginning it with those pre-conceptions and almost bouncing off it, but because it was Meg Rosoff who is always good and because the writing is spare and compelling I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. The Bride's Farewell tel More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 21, 2011

Alice rated it:

First off, let me say that I am an earnest fan of Rosoff's previous How I Live Now and What I Was. These two works display her ability to create rich characters worth caring about, around whom the story falls in place as a secondary element but a compelling one. I enjoy the voices of the narrators she creates and the voices they have, which are strong, sincere, and witty. So, yes, comparison with these previous works was inevitable. But I would have found The Bride's Farewell lacking without the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 18, 2010

Jessica rated it:

http://www.hipsterbookclub.com/reviews/c...

Meg Rosoff’s novel The Bride’s Farewell has the ingredients of a fine story: a scenic rural setting and a headstrong heroine mix with the author’s refined prose in a tale of self-discovery. Ultimately, the story is just fine. Okay. But for a writer of Rosoff’s caliber, being mediocre is an unexpected disappointment.

Rosoff’s previous works, including the award-winning How I Live Now and the haunting What I Was, evidence her ability to More...

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Aug 30, 2010

Mary rated it:

I loved this and lapped it up in a night, like ice cream. Set in the middle of the 19th century in some wild back of beyond British setting right out of Hardy, it tells a fairy like tale of Pell, a 17 year old bride to be who flees a future that she knows will confine her like a coffin: marriage and "a house full of children." As the eldest daughter of 8 children born to a haggard mother and an abusive "preacher" father, Pell wants nothing to do with such a life, though Bird More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2010

Palateenbrary rated it:

See the review on our teen blog! http://palatinelibraryteens.blogspot.com...

In Meg Rosoff's latest book, The Bride's Farewell, readers are transported to rural England in the 1850s. The book begins with a gallop, literally, and the pace never slows from page one. Pell Ridley is a runaway bride, and on the morning of her wedding, she takes her trusty horse, Jack, and rides away from a future of toil and child-rearing and into a future of uncertainty and adventure. Except that Bean, her More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 06, 2009

Paradoxical rated it:

Bleakkkk is pretty much the word I think of when I read this book. The heroine runs away from her impending marriage with a horse and her brother, but life afterward isn't a happy one. It's very bleak and grim and for every half-decent turn, the heroine gets beaten down a little further later.

I didn't connect with any of the characters well. Pell shows some fire with her decision to run away, but life has a way of beating you over the head (well, in this book) so that by the end she s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 26, 2009

Angie rated it:

When I'm opening up a new Meg Rosoff novel I literally never know what to expect. In a good way. She never tells the same story twice. She does generally center her stories around a character who feels ambivalent, anxious, or sometimes downright disenchanted with his or her world. She explores themes both serious and disturbing and her resolutions are bittersweet at best. And yet I love her writing. She's an auto-buy for me and has been ever since I first read How I Live Now and thought I would More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2009

Diane rated it:

In The Bride's Farewell, by Meg Rosoff we meet Pell Ridley. Pell is one of nine children who decides to run away on the morning of her wedding rather than go through with her marriage to a local blacksmith. Pell takes her horse Jack, her youngest brother Bean, who is mute, and some money that was saved for the wedding and, takes off for the horse fair hoping to make it on her own.

Pell is strong , smart and independent, and she seems to know what she she wants in life. She witnessed h More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2011

Ceilidh rated it:

I love Meg Rosoff’s work. “How I Live Now” and “Just In Case” were refreshing and vibrant, with a fascinating layer of unease throughout the simple but highly effective prose. Both books received mass acclaim, both from teens and adults, and many literary awards, such as the Carnegie Medal and Printz Award. I highly recommend her first two books to anyone in search of a book that proves YA can be just as moving, surprising and intriguing as anything intended for adults.

Unfortunately, More...

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2010

Heather rated it:

I'd read and liked three of Meg Rosoff's previous books (and particularly liked two of them—What I Was and How I Live Now), so when I read Emma Carbone's review on one of the NYPL blogs of The Bride's Farewell, I knew I'd want to read it eventually. But I wasn't sure I'd like it: after all, Emma hated How I Live Now, which I liked, and talked about how parts of this book were "bleak and miserable to the point of being excessive," and I wasn't sure I was that interested in the plotline. More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Thebookbutterfly rated it:

I have an unfinished copy of How I Live Now (bookmarked halfway through when I stopped about a year ago and never bothered to pick back up) sitting on my shelf, so I surprised myself when I picked up The Bride’s Farewell.

It looks like an easy read~ short and sweet, hinting at the kind of romance that you imagine must be epic with such a classic tale.

It is not easy, or short, or sweet.

It’s more like~

heartbreaking
tragic
thoughtful
hon More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 10, 2011

Adrianne rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 09, 2009

Holly rated it:

Ever since I read Meg Rosoff's fantastic dystopian YA novel How I Live Now I've planned on picking up another of her books. The desperate, traumatic, and epic-feeling story and the well-drawn characters sparked my interest initially; but it was the lovely, sparse writing which totally engulfed me and urgently pressed me to try another Rosoff novel. And the gorgeously despairing cover, the alluring historical British setting, and the doomed runaway bride premise of The Bride's Farewell made it More...

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May 24, 2011

Caren rated it:

This book is short listed for the 2011 Carnegie Medal for children's literature, and I am not quite sure why. Although the protagonist is a teen girl, in our library the book is considered adult fiction. The first time I tried to read this, I put it aside and went on to other books. I came back and tried again, and this time made myself finish it. Maybe this is just not my sort of book, but I found myself not all that interested in the characters and what would befall them. The situations of all More...

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Feb 14, 2010

Ningerbil rated it:

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book; I wasn't a big fan of "how i live now." But I really enjoyed this book. The basic premise is a pretty standard one: Pell, a teenage girl in the 19th century, runs away just before her wedding to Birdie, a neighborhood sweetheart. She looks at her family -- her alcoholic, abusive father and her worn-out mother -- and fears that could be her future. She leaves with her horse and her mute adopted brother Bean and crosses the country to go to th More...

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Aug 19, 2009

Sarah rated it:

Back in library school, we read Rosoff's teen book How I Live Now. It turned out to be one of my very favorites of any I read while in grad school. I found out she had a new book coming out and checked it out a couple days ago. It doesn't quite live up to the surreal, traumatic, and desperate landscape of How I Live Now, but then again they're two very different books.

The Bride's Farewell follows Pell, a girl who runs away (on horseback--she's got a special talent for sizing up ho More...

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Sep 16, 2011

E.M. rated it:

My first experience with Meg Rosoff was her debut novel, How I Live Now, which had very stylized, literary prose and a fairly straight line plot, through a virtual apocalypse. This book was different in almost every way. The main character, Pell, is the bride who runs off the morning of her wedding day, looking for freedom and adventure. She sets off across the countryside of England-on-the-cusp-of-industrialization. Once she's broken the bonds that have tied her down her whole life, the events More...

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Aug 20, 2010

Someoneyouknow rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 29, 2011

Sara E. rated it:

A very interesting and strange little book. Pell is betrothed, but certain that she does not want to marry, she takes off one night, with her mute half-brother Bean and her trusty steed Jack, towards the Salisbury Fair in order to look for work.

Her life soon turns to a tragedy, but the story is fascinating in its simple and plain view of the hardship of early English life.

I really enjoyed this book. It is not a happy happy joy joy book, but it is very enlightening and descr More...

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Mar 09, 2010

Nicole rated it:

Where's the edge, Meg? Where's the creepy factor? No incest, no abuse, no apocalypse. I hardly recognize you, Meg.

Despite it's serious lack of edginess and the fact that I am NOT a horse girl, I actually enjoyed this one. Because it was a Book CLub selection, I had my pen at the ready to take brilliant and thought-provoking notes. And yet. As I turned the final page, my notepad was still blank. I have absolutely no critical thoughts on this book. Not a one. You might be temp More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Lori rated it:

(Alex Award)

If one of my friends asked me if this book was worth checking out or buying, I would probably discourage them from doing so. That being said, I would be curious to see what another person thought of this book.

I was initially attracted to this book because of the title; having just finished the book moments ago, I can honestly say that the book is aptly named. I think the author had an interesting idea as far as the plot is concerned, but I felt that it was no More...

3 comments like

Apr 17, 2011

Charlotte rated it:

Ok, as a Carnegie book as my friend totally FAILED to finish it without whining, I had a feeling it wiould be bad. Weirdly - much like every other Carnegie book - we had contrasting opinions. Okay, the main character does seem a BIT wierd, but you can't tell me you never forgot something? She knew what had happened and she moved on, until she could take it no longer and I'm afraid that's perfectly believeable. In fact, it once happened to me, she just regretted what happened and therefore had to More...

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Jul 17, 2010

Caro rated it:

The satisfying picaresque tale of a young woman who flees a long-expected wedding in her small English village and makes her way in the world with nothing but her horse, a small purse and her mute younger brother. Her strength of character is tested by numerous encounters with villains who mistreat children, steal horses and force their affections on her, and her search for her missing brother is heart-wrenching. Rosoff's love of horses shines through, and the ending is quite satisfactory. St More...

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Jul 19, 2009

Sophie rated it:

I was a little disappointed with The Bride’s Farewell. Meg Rosoff’s previous three novels blew me away, but this just didn’t.

Pell is a strong, independent heroine who knows her own mind. She knows what she wants and how to get it, which is what I like about her. But Pell also has a subtlety and charm that makes her a well-rounded character and very easy to like.

One of the reasons that I didn’t like The Bride’s Farewell as much as I thought I would may be down to my lack o More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Amelianna rated it:

As a teenager I found this book completely inappropiate and I also want to say that I hate when books like these give you a summary that has nothing to do with the actual story.
The book states that she finds love in the most unexpected place.
She does not. This book is not about romance but about a hard live in the English country side. There was no romance in this novel.
Her relationship with Dogman is that of a whore and at the end of the book it leaves us very unfulfilled. I More...

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Feb 21, 2011

Janice rated it:

On the morning of her wedding, Pell and her brother, Bean, run away. Pell does not want to marry and especially not her best friend, Birdie. They make friends along the way to the fair. A servant of a rich man, gypsies, a horse trader. The horse trader asks for Pells help buying horses and then stiffs her for her share of the money. Bean goes after him and gets lost and ends up in a workhouse. Pell travels from town to town to find him. Meets up with the gypsies again, is offered marriage, later More...

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Sep 03, 2009

Tamra rated it:

What a strange little book. The premise was o.k. - poor girl abandons her family and home the night before she is to be married to poor village boy and tries to make it on her own in the overwhelmingly unforgiving and harsh world of 18th century England - but I didn't like that the author never fills you in much on the character of the man she's abandoning, her relationships with her family members and how there just isn't that much emotion or feeling in any of the story. The writing was very More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 29, 2011

Sara E. rated it:

A strange little book, but very intriguing nonetheless. Pell is betrothed but she is not happy about the prospect, and soon escapes her fate, joined by her mute half-brother Bean and her trusty steed Jack. Pell heads towards teh Salisbury Fair looking for work, but soon she finds sorrow and tragedy.

I really enjoyed this one. It was dark at times, but also quite enjoyable. Pell is a bit of a pro to-feminist, esp. with her realization of the hardships faced by the female race during th More...

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