This Entry is Actually About the Book - Apologies in Advance

As soon as my mom told me about Margot by Jillian Cantor I knew I had to read it.  The book is a fictitious story of Anne Frank’s older sister Margot – what if she had survived?  I can’t think of a subject I would be more excited to read.  Meaning, expectations were high (and likely unreasonable).

Unsurprisingly, I was pretty disappointed.  I was annoyed on several levels by this story (which gets a solid rating on Goodreads by the way – what’s up people?)  Some big, some small.   As I was reading, my inner monologue was bullet-pointing out what I didn’t like about the book.  Like a grocery list of complaints.  It went a little something like this:

• The main character Margot has a weird combination of not remembering things and yet also calling into question some pretty significant facts from her sister’s diary.  I would expect that in a COMPLETELY MADE UP BOOK that the author could at least nail down a few parts of the story.  Commit to something, please.
•  Margot goes by the pseudonym “Margie” in the book to hide her real identity.  Almost every spoken line by other characters uses her name.  This really got on my nerves.  That is not how people converse.   The dialogue in this book was oddly unrealistic.
•  I didn’t buy the flashbacks.  At one point, Margie compares getting into an elevator after an incident at work to feeling like being in line at a concentration camp.  Um, not buying that.  At all.

After all of these little things, I started getting personal.  Author Jillian Cantor, what right do you have to butcher this story?  You live in Arizona! 

I realize that this blog entry is probably too book-centric, but I can’t help it.  I feel pretty strongly about this one, though I still gave it 3 stars on Goodreads because it was a quick read and I liked the subject.  Even if she pretty much butchered it.