nyzerman's reviews
410 reviews

I did a combination of the audio book and the e-book. Some parts were better than others. I wasn't bothered by the complicated relationships between ALL the characters (and there didn't seem to be anyone who didn't have a relationship that was "it's complicated" status and I thought the exploration of that was the best part.... the murder mystery/thriller aspect did not seem to factor much in this (which confused me because I kept waiting for more clues and the detective was barely a character...). Some portions were suuuuuper slow and some seemed on-pace and many of the characters seemed insufferable... so I both enjoyed bits of it but was simultaneously annoyed by it, if that makes sense. 

I had won an ARC from Goodreads-  I'm a GenXer and I remember reading Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret and I remember that as young people, we thought we were very grown-up and knowledgeable (in our minds) about how the world works, haha. Blume's books helped me and my peers relate to what was going on with our puberty and adolescence. I thought that Bergstein did a great job of putting Blume's books in the context of what was happening socially and politically at the time. Blume had great impact on books for youth who wanted to see themselves represented and that books do not have to contain a moral lesson (as previous generations of books for youth were intended) but can simply reflect life. I appreciated learning more about Judy Blume's life, with its imperfections, and what inspired her to write. My primary criticism of the book is that it can be a bit dry at times, and sometimes I felt like I was reading supplemental material for an academic class on feminism (not necessarily a bad thing but something I have to personally be in the right mood for. This also would be a great book for any course on contemporary female writers who changed the reading landscape, or YA/Children's Lit).