3 thoughtful, if not entirely rapt, reviews of TM

Jason over at 5-Squared, at the end of his analysis of the reading experience that is Tender Morsels, addresses the critics:

Teens, some of the arguments say, simply aren't old enough for this book. Friends, I can agree, because frankly *I'm* not old enough to read this book. Most of us aren't old enough. Most of us, I'd guess, will never be old enough. But, then, this book made me older, wiser, more mature in a way that something more my age could not have done. And when I was a teenager, this is the book I wish I'd had, the book that would have taught me how live in a world that is nothing like your parents tell you it will be.

There was too much sex and darkness for Stephanie the bookaholic: 'I wanted to like this book, I really did. But it was just too harsh for me. I was expecting a fairy tale, and that is not what I got.' She was expecting a happy ending, too, unfortunately. There's good discussion in the comments to her review, especially Nymeth on the ending. I also like Chris's comment: 'It does sound terribly depressing- like an Oprah book!'

The Book Maven gives you a rundown of the Grimms' 'Snow White and Rose Red' instead of one of TM, for a change, but she reckons the book is 'broken-backed', although she calls it 'a terrific read for all its faults' and says that 'everything about the bears is quite wonderful and leads me to hope that there is a better book to come from Margo Lanagan'. She says:

It’s not a book or a view of sexual relations that I should have wanted to offer my three daughters, all now living with good men, when they were teenaged. Not because I am outraged by the sex scenes but because I am depressed by the world view in which they take place. Lanagan imagines the beast within the man so much more vividly than the man within the beast.

All fascinating.