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Scarlett

Alexandra Ripley

Discussion: . Week 1: More Than 500 Pages

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. Week 1: More Than 500 Pages

* Week 1: Introduction
By Jessica · 102 posts · 1093 views

last updated Aug 11, 2015 02:06PM

* Week 1: Progress Post
By Jessica · 99 posts · 421 views

last updated Nov 06, 2015 06:29AM

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Feb 11, 2016 Libscigrl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016

Admit it.
You know you what to know what happened between Rhett and Scarlett after Gone With the Wind. I did! But the thought of another 800+ pages to find out put me off for a few years. I wish I had read this sooner, because I have forgotten many of the minor details of GWTW.

In the first half of the book, you will hate her. She's a spoiled southern brat, worried about money and appearances, ditching her two children behind to stay at Tara with the sister she can't stand. The book picks up right Admit it.
You know you what to know what happened between Rhett and Scarlett after Gone With the Wind. I did! But the thought of another 800+ pages to find out put me off for a few years. I wish I had read this sooner, because I have forgotten many of the minor details of GWTW.

In the first half of the book, you will hate her. She's a spoiled southern brat, worried about money and appearances, ditching her two children behind to stay at Tara with the sister she can't stand. The book picks up right where GWTW left off...the death of Ashley's wife and Scarlett's best (only?) friend in the world.

But after the halfway point, you start to admire her. She's got gumption. She's one tough cookie. She decides to be independent, which is what she has been all along- she just didn't see it in herself. Always feigning the need for a man to rescue her- that is not her true nature, and in Scarlett, we finally see this metamorphosis. Scarlett dives right into her role of independent matriarch, carrying on her father's name. This change is refreshing to say the least.

And while there are not nearly the love scenes in this that there are in GWTW, it is because Scarlett doesn't need it. In moments where she starts to fall for someone, you see her get a grip on herself and remember...she doesn't need a man.

This book leaves Atlanta, Tara, Charleston and Savannah behind, and moves to Ireland and England, where her father came from. A nice change of scenery for Scarlett and the reader.

The last 30 pages or so warp up the story very quickly (quickly? it's 800+ pages!) but it is necessary to express the urgency of what is occurring in those last 30 pages. You feel breathless, leg-numb, cold and wet...but the ending itself wraps both novels up nicely.

I only gave this 3 stars because the first half of the book took a while to get through. Sometimes the writing is confusing...switching from 3rd to 1st person between characters, which seems to be because the character is now being self-reflective, but the transitions are awkward. Also, I still couldn't stand Scarlett in that first half, which made it hard to read (not the author's fault-Scarlett is who she is). I think this story could have been told in more like 500 pages. ...more

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