Little Bee by Chris Cleave

3.5 stars
R- 3? it was mostly pretty detached, almost clinical, so it's hard to judge.

First, let's talk about the cover.  The black silhouette with the orange lettering is gorgeous, but the white "eye" silhouette CREEPS ME OUT!  Is it just me?  *shudder*

Anyway.

I'm having a hard time rating this one... It was well written, and in some ways that's making it harder.

If it weren't well done, I could say that the detached feel and hanging ending were bad writing or bad editing.  But that's not it.

So it had to have all been intentional.... and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

It's really hard to connect with and care about the characters.  Horrific things are discussed (nothing much actually happens) and yet I had a really hard time caring.

And it's really not plot-driven... and if I don't care about the characters then it's hard to feel compelled by the character-driven story.

And yet I was compelled.... but more in a half-annoyed "will you just tell me what the heck is going on!??!" kinda way.

Much of the story is told in flashback-type sequences, switching off between the two main characters.  But it's all muddled.... bouncing all over the place.

I also don't really understand all the secrecy.  The flap says "We don't want to tell you what happens in this book" and not much else.  I didn't get that, but whatever.

Overall, it was okay.  The writing was good, but I didn't love the story and didn't care about the characters, so it didn't do much for me.

Counts for the Support Your Local Library challenge and the Reader's Choice Challenge!