Jacob Have I Loved in Pick-a-Shelf

Nov 25, 2020 Nat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, middle-grade

A strange and unhappy book. Louise spends most of the book so miserable, and the worst part of it is that it's not really for any reason. She resents her twin sister for being perfect and better loved, but actually Caroline never seems to really mean any harm. Louise's anger and frustration twist her experiences so that she feels like everyone and everything is against her, but in my opinion that's not necessarily the truth. She's an interesting and compelling character, but not actually very li A strange and unhappy book. Louise spends most of the book so miserable, and the worst part of it is that it's not really for any reason. She resents her twin sister for being perfect and better loved, but actually Caroline never seems to really mean any harm. Louise's anger and frustration twist her experiences so that she feels like everyone and everything is against her, but in my opinion that's not necessarily the truth. She's an interesting and compelling character, but not actually very likeable. She's not very nice to the other characters, even her friends; she's prickly and hard to be around; she gets her feelings hurt easily. She feels things very strongly and sometimes doesn't seem to even fully understand what it is that she's feeling. It's a stark portrayal of being a teenager, and I definitely see some of my own teen and pre-teen years here. So convinced that the world was against me and that no one understood.

Louise is so strongly herself, but is also so conflicted about who she is and what she wants. It's a natural way to feel in the teenage years and it's exacerbated by the way that Caroline so clearly knows who she is and what she wants. I think we're supposed to see a parallel between Louise and her grandmother, who was also eaten up with jealousy and unhappiness that turned to anger and bitterness. I think this is in part why Louise has to leave the island, to experience new things-- to stop her from becoming her grandmother, who quite frankly is terrible. I didn't like the ending that much, though. All of a sudden it just felt like Louise became a dramatically different character and stumbled into some perfect husband + children ending in a mountain version of the town where she grew up. This was the only part that to me didn't seem to fit. It's a little frustrating that so much of Louise's anger and jealousy and anxiety doesn't seem to ever be resolved. She never fixes her relationship with her sister, or really with the rest of her family, or Call. I wish there had been a stronger resolution for her in that sense and that Patterson had been more explicit about her letting go of that anger and sorrow.

Not really a fun or easy book to read but very powerful. ...more

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