Angelina Mirabella

Story: 7.5 / 10
Characters: 7.0
Setting: 7.0
Prose: 7.0

Overall, this is quite a good novel, especially for a debut. There are two weaknesses that might put off readers. The book starts with an arbitrary event that triggers a flashback that lasts for the entirety of the novel. Most stories make this same mistake. Humans have been using stories to communicate information since the early days of language. Readers know they are going to be told a story when they pick up a book. These "introductions" are entirely superfluous.

More importantly, the author chose to use a very unusual narrative device. In fact, the only other author I can recall writing in this way was Tolstoy in War & Peace. Throughout Tolstoy's novel, the narrator will say "... and it is this [battle] that ultimately results in France's [weakening power]". Compare that statement with "With France's most recent mistake, their prospects were not promising". Note however, that by the time Tolstoy wrote this work, most people would be very much aware of the results of the war. Pointing out some educational information in a largely inconsistent voice might be acceptable. It didn't work for me, but the proposition sounds reasonable.

In The Sweetheart, no one knows what is going to happen; the story is fictitious. This style is problematic because it technically spoils some of the suspense. At a conceptual level, this type of omniscient narrator is very much consistent with flashback plot structures. Nevertheless, neither work in my not-so-humble opinion.

Now I'm worried that I might some similar mistake in my upcoming first novel. The book is still well worth reading despite these high-level faults. Hopefully mine will be too.

Tags: Women, wrestling, sports, athletes, goals, purpose, direction, career… (mehr)

The Sweetheart by Angelina Mirabella is a wonderful coming-of-age story set in the 1950s, but is very relevant to women today, as it felt like it could be happening in today’s world. It is a story about friendship, love, growing up, maturing and finding your path in life. At the beginning of the book, Leonie doesn’t know what she will do with her life. She feels like she doesn’t fit in. Then a chance meeting with a pro wrestling promoter who saw her on TV changes her life. She moves to Florida to start training. The Giant of a man who takes the promotional photos names the girls and Leonie becomes Gwen Davies. There are twists and turns within the wrestling circuit as Gwen changes her persona a couple times. I liked Leonie, I even liked Mimi and Sam. Joe the promoter, not so much.

I enjoyed the wrestling scenes and kept wondering why a woman would do this to her body. There are too many parts that could be damaged permanently. That was the only part I struggled with because I like wrestling that the boys do in school, but the pro wrestling that is staged not so much. One thing I did struggle with at first was the book was written entirely in the second person. That was a little confusing but then I got used to it. I found myself swept up in this story and taking on a journey. Very enjoyable and very entertaining.

I won this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
… (mehr)