Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A very entertaining read. I liked learning about circuses, especially given the author's note, which talks about all the research that was used in writing the story. There were some parts that didn't sit quite right---although I usually like the flashback method of story-telling, I overall did not like how the beginning passage was nearly identical, but also not identical to one of the last passages in the story. As I read it, I knew I had read it in the beginning, but there were also parts that I knew I hadn't read, so then I flipped back and forth to see what was added. I get that Gruen needed to come back to that scene, I just wish it didn't involve repeating the exact same passages.




The twists at the end were clever, but I think because of the whole flashback issue, it ruined some of that for me.




Overall, I still enjoyed it.




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