Review: Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You by Joyce Carol Oates

Title: Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: August 21st 2012
Pages: 288
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: Bought
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It wasn't like she had not warned us.
It wasn't like she had not prepared us.
We'd known that something was wrong those last several months.
But then, Tink hasn't actually vanished. Tink is gone, and yet—she is here somewhere, even if we can't see her.
Tink? Are you—here?

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars


I really hate my terrible memory. I thought Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You sounded like something I'd like, but the name Joyce Carol Oates sounded familiar, and I didn't know why. If I'd thought about it more, instead of going with the "Ooh. Want. Buy." instinct, I would have remembered that I'd read Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by this author and that I didn't like it. I probably wouldn't have read Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You knowing that, and that would have been a good thing, because I had more of the same issues with Two or Three Things that I'd had with Big Mough & Ugly Girl.

Joyce Carol Oates's style just doesn't work for me. Somehow, I found the writing both immature and confusing. The sentences feel overdramatic and just really, really weird. I can't even explain it, so I'll give an example - this is how the book starts (page 3):

"Merissa! Congratulations!"
Hannah's excitement was genuine. Hannah's happiness for Merissa was genuine. Merissa could see.
Merissa had been afraid - just a little, putting herself in Hannah's place - (for Hannah Heller's grades were inevitably just slightly lower than Merissa Charmichael's, not to mention the fact that Merissa was associate yearbook editor, Drama Club president, and cocaptain of the girls' intramural field hockey team as well; and Hannah had applied to virtually all the same colleges and Merissa) - that Hannah would be hurt, and envious, and even resentful, for it is not nearly so easy to be happy for your closest friend's good news as it is to (secretly) rejoice in your closest friend's bad news.

I don't usually like using quotes in reviews, but that shows it better than I could explain. The writing is like that the entire time. If you don't have a problem with that style, it might be a good read for you, but for me, the writing was just frustrating.

Asides from the writing, the story and the characters didn't work for me, either. To be honest, I didn't really see the point of it all. I hate saying that, because I'm not someone who thinks that literature always has to have a "point," that it always has to teach you something. But I just mean that for me personally, I didn't see the point, because the story didn't really go anywhere. It sort of circled around Tink's suicide, but not really. Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You is about three of Tink's friends, after Tink's suicide. It's split into three parts, with each of the girls telling their story individually, and none of the three really worked for me.

I never felt like I really got to know any of the characters, and that's a big part of why I didn't end up liking this book. They each have their problems, and there's some pretty messed-up stuff going on, but I don't feel like we got to go deep enough to explore those issues in any meaningful way. The way it is, they're just kind of... there. I don't feel like any of the characters are fully developed, and there was none of the character growth or resolving of issues that I'd hoped for.

I also struggled with seeing how these three stories tied in with each other; other than Tink, I didn't see a connection. And everything about Tink is just sort of weird. Tink, like, visits them in their dreams, or her ghost visits them, and she gives the girls advice. I didn't get what all of that was about, and since it's never addressed what's really going on with Tink, it felt kind of pointless to me.

Somehow, I just felt removed from the story throughout. I've been having a hard time getting into books lately, so it might have to do with my reading slump, but I think it was at least partly the book's fault. The weird writing style, the lack of character development, and the plot that didn't go anywhere made it really hard for me to enjoy this book. I guess Joyce Carol Oates just isn't for me.

Review: Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

Title: Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: January 1st 2002
Pages: 288
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: Sarah
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Matt Donaghy has always been a big mouth but it's never gotten him in trouble -- until one day when two detectives escort him out of class for questioning. Matt has been accused of threatening to blow up Rocky River High School.
Ursula Riggs has always been an ugly girl, a loner with fierce, staring eyes, Ursula has no time for petty high school stuff like friends and dating -- or at least that's what she tells herself. Ursula is content with minding her own business. And she doesn't even really know Matt Donaghy.
But Ursula is the only person who knows what Matt really said that day... and she is the only one who can help him.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars


I had high hopes for this book. I hadn't heard much about it, but it sounded great, and Joyce Carol Oates is a renowned author. (I haven't read any of her adult novels, but I do know a few of her essays and some of her poetry.) Big Mouth & Ugly Girl might not be all that hypable, but I was expecting a quiet gem, one of those unassuming but good books. But sadly, that is not what I got.


The feel of this book is very immature, which surprised me, since Joyce Carol Oates usually writes for adults. Maybe it's one of those adult-author-tries-to-write-YA kind of problem, the author dumbing down her style for a younger audience, which I'm never a fan of. Either way, the writing is very basic - short sentences, lots of exclamation points, that kind of thing. Writing like that might fit some stories, but I thought it was kind of strange and didn't fit the serious subject-matter.


What bugged me most, I think, was the portrayal of good and evil, which is very black and white in Big Mouth & Ugly Girl. Each character is either all good or all bad and, well, that's not how real life works. I found it a little unrealistic how everyone turns on Matt. Reading the synopsis, I'd thought Ursula would spend the whole time trying to prove Matt's innocence, but that's just the first part. Matt's innocence is proven pretty far at the beginning, but people still treat him badly afterwards, and that's what the book is mainly about. I'd get that a lot of people would feel weird around him, and that some would even harrass him. But everyone turning on him, even his friends, who were there when Matt cracked those jokes that made someone report him? I can't imagine that happening, to be honest.


It also frustrated me how negatively the school was portrayed. They were told that Matt had threatened to blow up the school, and immediately got the police involved. Yes, that tip they received was crap, but that's not the school's fault! What were they supposed to do, ignore it!? School shootings are no joke, and I'd prefer a school administration that acts immediately, getting the police involved to protect the students, to one that'd do nothing. People kept repeating how the school should have known the scare was false because Matt had always been such a good guy, but it's not like you can tell beforehand who's gonna go and blow up the school. The way that whole issue of school shootings is handled, how the characters don't understand at all that the administration would be scared and tried to protect the students, frustrated me.


I didn't love the characters, either. Matt and Ursula are okay, I guess, but nothing special. I did not like how their relationship developed, at all. Ursula speaks up for Matt, and then they're immediately best friends. Their connection was deep and profound, supposedly, but I didn't see it. And that ending.... just, no.


Maybe I'm too old for this kind of book - I could see Big Mouth & Ugly Girl working a lot better for the younger YA set. But for me, it didn't work - an immature writing style and very basic plot and character development made it hard for me to enjoy Big Mouth & Ugly Girl.