My One Hundred Adventures

I'm torn between 2 and 3 stars. As a fan of Polly Horvath's quirky books, I would like it to be better. But I can't distinguish the terrible choice of narrator from the book. Perhaps I shall have to read it. I agree with many of the comments from the 1-star reviewer, but I will focus on the narrator, Tai Alexandra Ricci. Ricci uses a rather adult, cynical voice throughout her narration. You feel quite strongly that she sees the selfishness of the adults around her, with commenting specifically. By the ending, Horvath writes an epiphany, where the protagonist discovers how foolish she has been to believe in these adults. So the entire cynical tone violates the story as written, and makes for an unpleasant reading experience, rather than an enjoyable one.

Putting this on the 12-14 shelf was a bit of a struggle. Because the book uses language and concepts that I found were very adult, such as when the 12-year old protaganist is sudddenly crucially aware of the passage of time, and that things will never be the same. Not that 12 year olds might not not......more

I had a hard time with this book. As with many books by Polly Horvath, it was hit and miss. On the one hand the story was very engaging. I loved the older female characters in the book, they were eccentric and vivid. On the other hand, the 12 year old narrator did not sound or feel 12 years old. I m......more

A variation of this review is at my blog here. This is a lovely book. I became a Horvath fan years ago with The Trolls and quite liked Everything on a Waffle. This one has the same episodic quality of these and feels a bit gentler too, somehow. It takes place in an unnamed Massachusetts town where th......more

Twelve-year-old Jane is at that tender place we call adolescence, leaving childhood behind, yearning and aching for something she can't yet define. "As if itching and outgrown, my soul is twisting about my body wanting something more to do this summer than the usual wading in shallows and reading an......more

Jane and her siblings live with their mother, a famous poet, in a small house by the ocean. A preacher woman, Nellie, ropes Jane into helping her distribute Bibles, and a local woman blackmails Jane into babysitting five children. Jane is pulled into the town drama, and discovers one of her mother’s......more