Hello there lovelies! Welcome to my first ever Flashback Friday Feature. As I said in my introduction post yesterday, this feature will be where I bring back book reviews that I wrote on an old blog of mine back in 2010-2011. The intent is to hopefully bring some older books back to light and maybe introduce them to some new readers who may have forgotten about them. But also I just felt sad that those reviews were sitting there going to waste :p

 

If you’ve been blogging for a while and have some old posts you want to breathe some new life into, feel free to grab the image above and have your own Flashback Friday! If you do, please link to this post and post a link to your review below so I can see it. Let’s share the love of some older books! 😉

Without further ado, as the title states, here is my review of Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen from April 8, 2010. Enjoy!

---

 

I loved this book. Loved, Loved, Loved it. I was wary about it at first because (as we saw with The Time Traveler’s Wife) usually I don’t agree with popular opinion. I’m VERY glad I read this one. It’s about a 1930’s depression era Circus and an (almost) college graduate who joins The Benzini Brother’s Most Spectacular Show on Earth when he feels like he has lost everything. Here he makes friendships with people and animals alike, falls in love for the first time, gets in many fights and tussles, learns a whole new vernacular, and becomes a man. This book came close to moving me to tears at points, and had me giggling in my chair. Gruen did an excellent job with research before she wrote this. I could easily visualize every scene, even though I don’t think I’ve ever been to an actual circus. She makes it come to life, makes it scary and fun at the same time.

You know an author has done an excellent job with characterization when you literally want to kill the villain. I wanted to murder this man with every ounce of my being – which means that Gruen did a fantastic job setting it up. Seriously though.. 5/5 stars. Read it. Now.

Oh, and just an interesting little tid-bit: A movie is already in the works by Fox 2000. It seems like production companies are just jumping all over popular books to turn them into movies, but most aren’t really going anywhere. WELL! Water for Elephants is already being cast, and Reese Witherspoon will play the lovely Marlena and.. drum roll please… Robert Pattinson will be playing the main character, JACOB. Which makes me laugh. A lot. Now Rob fans can be both Team Edward and Team Jacob without being disloyal. Anway. If they do this book justice, then the movie will be beautiful.

READ IT.

Edit: I just realized that this review made it seem like just a love story. May I add in then, that there is murder, adultery, a deadly animal stampede, deadly diseases and more? At times this book is very dark, but Gruen balances it well with the fun aspects. Believe me… this book is definitely not sunshine and daisies. It will probably upset you at many times. Happy Reading!

---

 

Side note: Some of these reviews may cause me intense embarrassment. I’m leaving them as is unless I said something incredibly stupid :p

This feature was so much fun for me to write! I really enjoyed going back and reading some of my old reviews and taking a little trip down memory lane. I hope you’ll enjoy Flashback Friday as much as I do!