Book Review #42: Life On The Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

Hey guys x

This book is different to most other books that I've read.

It's about a mother and daughter whose main way to communicate is to leave each other notes on the door of the fridge. Because of this, the book is literally just the notes that they leave for each other on the fridge door, which means that the book is quite short. I managed to read it in about an hour.

And because it was quite short, there really isn't a lot that I can talk about without giving any spoilers, because one major thing takes up the majority of the book and I wouldn't want to spoil it.

Nevertheless, this is a good book! The way it was written was so interesting and I find it really interesting that Alice Kuipers was able to capture two different voices so well! There was no point when I was confused about whose note I was reading.

I also really liked the character development for both of the main characters. Claire, the daughter, grows up significantly and this is shown really well in the notes that she leaves her mother, which is really nice!

What was good?
Other than the things that I've already said, I really liked the way that Alice writes. I've read nothing else by her, but the notes really felt like they were notes, rather than someone trying to write a book, and I loved that! Just like a movie, for me, the best books are the realistic ones. Even if they are fantasy books, I like a sense of realism. Like with Harry Potter, it's fantasy, but at the end of the day, it's a teenage boy trying to work out who he is, have good relationships with the people around him, and defend the world against the forces of evil, and I love that! In a similar way, this books is so realistic and down to earth I can't even describe it! And I think that this is what I liked the most about the book.

What was bad?
Although I said that I  liked the character development (which I did!), I wasn't particularly fond of any of the characters themselves. The mother seemed to me to be quite selfish at times, which is realistic, but I wasn't a big fan of it. And then, with Claire, who is definitely my favourite character, she was a teenager. She had mood-swings, bad days, tantrums, and for me, it felt weird for her to have these moments in the form of notes. In fact, this is a point for the whole book. Once what happens happens, it seems weird that the most heartfelt conversations take place in the form of notes. It seems like they should have forced each other to talk about these things rather than avoid having a face-to-face conversation.

Overall
I'd definitely recommend this book, mainly because it's really short but a great one to add to the collection! It definitely won't take you long to read it and it really is an interesting book, which may seem a bit cliche. However, I did enjoy reading it and I think you would too!

Thank you for reading

Comment below whether or not you'd like to read this book!

Keep Smiling - Lou xx