Innocence

Innocence by Kathleen Tessaro is a book about a woman who once dreamed of being an actress but is teaching acting to amateurs instead. In the book, the reader learns how Evie went from the hopeful, aspiring young woman to the disappointed, struggling adult. I categorised the book as chick-lit, but I think it is actually a bit more than that. Innocence has more than one layer, and its characters develop more than in the average chick-lit book. I recommend this book if you are looking for a light read with a bit of depth.

This review originally appeared at http://bellesbookshelf.blogspot.com

I was excited to read this book, but sadly it fell a little flat for me.

A friend lent it to me because we share a mutual love of love stories, and after I made her read If I Stay (and she adored it), she insisted I'd love this one. The story definitely intrigued me - switching between timelines, it tells the tale of Evie as she is at 18 and at 33. At 18, she dreams of being an actress, is best friends with the larger-than-life Robbie and swept up in a passionate affair with wannabe rock star Jake. At 33, she's living in a sharehouse as a single mum, teaching acting classes for amateurs at night and being haunted by the now-dead Robbie. How she went from one to the show more other is slowly revealed and it's this that kept me reading. I had no problems with the plot, really - but the characters drove me bonkers.

I had high hopes of falling for Jake and being swept away with passion myself, so I was very disappointed to find him extremely unattractive. Oh, sure, he's sexy - but he's also douchebag drug dealer/manipulative asshat (side note: can you tell I'm currently reading City of Bones?). He raves on about how Evie's everything to him, but that's clearly not true. He cares more about drugs, music and himself, because that's what he chooses over her time and again. I would even say his relationship with Evie is emotionally abusive; it's not her he loves, it's how she makes him feel and the power he has over her. Even their first sexual encounter (and the only one detailed in the book) seems less about passion and more about what he can do to her and get her to do to him.

All of this made Evie's obsession with Jake extremely frustrating; even 15 years later, she's no longer with him but he's still haunting her - perhaps even more so than the actual ghost in her life. She's floundering and clearly extremely unhappy, with her scraps of unmet dreams and lost love piled up in a box under the bed. Hence the haunting; Robbie comes along with the message to not waste life because you never know when it will end. At least, I think that was why she was there. It's never firmly established; in fact, the haunting takes a backseat to a bunch of other things so much that each time Robbie pops up, I was like, "oh, that's right, this is a ghost story." In the end, all Robbie proved to me was what a horrible friend Evie was, making me like her even less.

Robbie herself is a colourful character, which is one of the reasons I would've liked to see more of her - dead or alive. There were some other secondary characters that I also enjoyed - namely pretty much all of the people Evie lives with as an adult. Piotr the pianist especially caught my heart; from the moment he was introduced I found him so much more attractive than icky Jake. But he wasn't in it enough to make up for the horrible relationship that dominates the majority of the book. To me, Innocence was not a story about love, or even about ghosts, but about the damage we can inflict on others. Not quite the bubbly chick lit I was hoping for. show less

Della Tessaro ho adorato Elegance, al punto da ridurlo più volte ai minimi termini per tutte le volte che l'ho riletto...
Questo non ha niente a che vedere con l'ironia di "Zucchetta", anzi, è una storia triste e complessa. Anche qui, l'autrice alterna il racconto dal tempo dei ricordi ad un tempo presente dove questi stessi ricordi in qualche modo sono ancora vivi.
La ricerca della felicità e di un obiettivo da raggiungere è resa ancor più ardua dagli scherzi della vita: Evie è, nonostante tutto, una donna forte e il finale vedo/non vedo è perfetto.
Speravo di sorridere di più, ma è questa l'unica delusione: tre stelle di cuore.

A moving novel following aspiring actress Evie Garlick, a young woman who leaves Ohio for London to carve out a place in the theatrical world. Evie meets many colorful characters (including roommate Robbie, a New Yorker with a bohemian spirit), falls in love, falls out of love and settles into a comfortable life in London as a teacher. Understandably, Evie begins to wonder where she released her dreams and became satisfied with a slow, hum-drum sort of life discussing plays with students instead of acting in them -- and the entire novel takes a turn.

We get Evie's story in bits and pieces, shifting from the past to the present and back again. And when Robbie appears early on in the book as a figment from beyond the grave, Evie has to show more confront her former best friend all over again -- and learn the lessons she's trying to impart.

I really liked the book -- I thought it was at times funny, poignant and sad all at once. Evie reclaims her life in bits and pieces, realizing that love is the best reason to give up everything and move forward. By the end of the novel, I felt like cheering! show less

Laura's one request when she loaned me this book was to not give it a bad review, that if I didn't like it, don't tell her =) I thought I was in trouble when I first started reading this book, I just couldn't get into it, and out of fear for my life, cause Laura is fierce and reads these, I set it aside. I would come back to it read a page here and there, and finally something clicked in me or the book, and I have to say it was one of the pleasant surprises you sometimes find if you just truck through them.It was a quirky read. It wasn't a typical anything. I enjoyed the characters...the book was pretty big on character development, to the point maybe the plot isn't that important...who knows. It was well worth the read, and I'm glad I show more wasn't forced to lie in my review. Hooray for me. show less

Innocence is for all those who gave up on the big dream, but still love their life. The book brings you into the lives of dreamers. Big on character development but, a light enough read to take to the pool, Ms. Tessaro captures you with her attention to detail, yet good pacing. I would have given the book 4-stars if it hadn't included a visit from a "supernatural being". That part of the book seemed contrived and I believe the issues brought forward in those scenes could have been dealt with better in a different manner.

A fun, read which, like Kathleen Tessaro's previous book 'Elegance', combines light romantic chick lit with a little bit of self help advice, in this case dispensed by Robbie, Evie's ghostly friend, who, despite being dead, hasn't lost her taste for life, coffee and Gitanes. There is a feel of authenticity to parts of this novel - the description of the flat share, the controller wannabe rocker boyfriend (maybe that's just me) - which lift this above the average.