TBR Jar Review: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Challenges:
Around the Year in 52 Books: A historical fiction



I have been meaning to read this classic for a while (that’s why it was on my TBR obviously), but I’ve just never gotten around to it until now. 

This book follows Scarlett, a young (very young!) lady in the American South during the Civil War in the 1860s. Before the war starts all she wants is to find a good husband and get married. When she can’t have the one she wants she throws a fit and marries someone else in a rage. And this is really the crux of her character. She is selfish and vain, and continues to be so, even in the face of all the struggles the war puts her through. At first I felt like I really couldn’t blame her, she is after all VERY young (15 at the start of the book I believe) but after a few years of hardship and misery, and seeing young men cut down in their prime on the battlefields and languishing away in hospitals, still all she cares about is how she looks in her new hat. So I got tired of her after a few hundred pages of this. 

To be perfectly honest, I only read the first part of the book. It came from the library as part one of two and I figured if I liked part one I would get part two. But as you can probably tell from the above, I didn’t really like it that much. I assume part two will have some more character development for Scarlett, at least I hope so, but I just can’t be bothered to read it. 

This being said, I did really like the writing style, if only I didn’t feel like the last 2/3 or so of the book had been so slow. I gave it 3 stars out of 5. 


The next pick from my jar is “A Bloodsmoor Romance” by Joyce Carol Oates. I read the synopsis on Goodreads, and I’m not really sure this is my thing. It is a tale of 5 sisters in a Victorian age style setting, whose surroundings are shocked at their sexuality and impulsiveness. I feel like this could go either way for me, and either be really fun and provoking or it will just be trying too hard and I will hate it. I guess we will find out!

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