[Book Review] Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

For generations, children around the world have come of age with Louisa May Alcott's March girls: hardworking eldest sister Meg, headstrong, impulsive Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. With their father away at war, and their loving mother Marmee working to support the family, the four sisters have to rely on one another for support as they endure the hardships of wartime and poverty. We witness the sisters growing up and figuring out what role each wants to play in the world, and, along the way, join them on countless unforgettable adventures.

Readers young and old will fall in love with this beloved classic, at once a lively portrait of nineteenth-century family life and a feminist novel about young women defying society's expectations.

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I have been lucky to have avoided all spoilers before picking up this well loved classic. So when going into this book, I had very little idea of what to expect. I knew it was about four sisters as they grow into adults. Although I definitely have my overall issues with this book (which I will get into later), I am happy I read it because the parts I loved, I really loved.  However, because this book was published in 1868-1869 I am going to ahead and put a spoiler warning here. If someone, like me before I picked it up, has managed to avoid spoilers up to this point I recommend not reading this review any further. 

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."

Between the four sisters, the only one I felt really invested in was Jo, and the only times I felt any interest in the other characters were in moments where they were interacting with Jo.  Same with Laurie. I liked him a lot but almost exclusively when he was interacting with Jo because I loved their friendship. I straight up hated Amy, and Meg greatly annoyed me. I know this is harsh, and these characters are well loved by the ones who love this book, and although I don't apologize for my opinions. I am bummed I couldn't fall in love with these characters the way so many seemed to because I genuinely wanted to enjoy this book. 

My biggest issue with Little Women is something I think is the cause of me not being able to really love the characters, and that is the overwhelming fake overly sweet tone so many of the characters possess. I can give some credit to the time this book was written, but the preachy and too heavy moral lessons made this book too much for me. I think that is why I liked Jo so much, she was less "proper" and it made it easier for her to seem realistic and not a model of how children should be. I couldn't help but roll my eyes over and over again because it was all just too over the top. I think this could have been a mixture of wanting the book to have a lot of morals mixed with the not great writing.

The plot itself was hit or miss for me. It felt like a series of little vignette stories that take place over a few chapters and often wrapped up with a moral or lesson. Especially in part one when the March girls are younger. Some of the stories kept my attention and others I had to skip for one of two reasons. The first being that it was centered around either Amy and Meg, and I couldn't care less or I was just bored and had to skim or otherwise I would have just DNFed. The second part of the book when the girls have grown up (I believe it had been three years in between the two volumes) was the most boring volume. I may have been annoyed a lot in part one but it at least kept my interest. Part one had enough sweet and heartwarming moments that I genuinely enjoyed and even got emotional at times. 

I hated the ending. At first, it seemed like Jo and Laurie were endgame, which I was here for to a certain extent because I would have been fine with them being friends. I think despite the great romantic chemistry they had on page, their friendship would have been enough for me because of how well done it was. I also liked that Jo stood her ground and kept true in how she felt about Laurie. She wasn't interested in him like that, and she made that clear. Although she tried to be as delicate as she could to not break his heart, she didn't cave into being with him when she obviously failed and he was heartbroken. I hate that it affected their friendship, something that seemed so strong, and I definitely hated that he then married Amy. Not only did they have zero chemistry it felt so rushed and ridiculous. 

I want to end this review on a less negative note, because although its obvious that I wasn't the biggest fan of this book I wanted to say I did enjoy the March sister's love for each other and their parents. I thought that despite the overall fake proper tone the majority of this book held, the sisterly relationships felt realistic at times between the dialogue, fighting, bickering, and making up and apologizing. I love Jo's sister bond Beth, and the scene of Beth finding the poem Jo wrote about her before Beth's death absolutely shattered me in every single way. I think I can see understand why this book is so popular, and I can see it being a favorite of mine if I had read it when I was younger. 

Overall, I recommend this book if you haven't read it and you're interested. I am not one to not recommend a book often because I know that tastes are different for everyone. I think that this was just a huge miss for me, and although I didn't like it I am happy that I can finally say I've read it. 

Thanks for reading!