My Story: A Book Review

My Story by Elizabeth  Smart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this book up to read after seeing a special on the Elizabeth Smart story last weekend on tv. I almost feel bad that I had judged this book literally within the first 5 pages. First, there were two almost identical sentence structures back to back. That probably seems trivial, but come on, pull it together editorial staff! I know Elizabeth isn't an award winning author, but that's why she has editors and Chris Stewart, right? Then my other complaint is that many of the chapters were very short... 3-5 pages. To me, it's not a good chapter unless it's at least 8 pages long-- the recommended daily reading quota for general health. The story was also rather monotonous-- the same stuff occurred all day everyday of her abduction. She also seemed to have an obsession with the word "sliver." EVERYTHING was a "sliver" of pie, a "sliver" of cloud, etc. All the above aside, it was entertaining enough. I think it was definitely written toward the media devouring crowd that probably followed the story from the comfort of their couch, but doesn't really ever read on said couch. I surmised this from the short chapters, monotonous repetition (if Mr. TV Couch Potato puts it down for a few days and comes back, he won't have missed too much and can get back into the story easily) and the very simple language. However, such an incredible story can't help but be a good read, no matter the quality of writing.


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