Review: 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

2 A.M. At The Cat's Pajamas

Marie-Helene Bertino

I loved the cover of this book. It was so cute and engaging. I expected the story to be the same. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I found it hard to get into the beginning of the book. The characters didn't seem that interesting and the story seemed a bit flat and if I'm honest, boring. Nevertheless, I plowed on and by the middle of the book I found it a bit more interesting. I did at least want to know what would happen to the characters enough to make me continue.

Overall, it seemed to suffer from too many stories within the main story which left it short on character development. To me the numerous stories took away from the main character's story. Madeleine, the nine year old who wants to be a jazz singer is at the heart of the story and the thread that pulls everyone else together but, the development of this character seemed slow and somehow I just couldn't get a feel for her.

It may be a personal preference, but I didn't like the style of writing, which seemed forced and artificial at times. Having said that there were a few interesting bits which helped me get to the end. I enjoyed the conversation Madeleine had with a roach during a dream at 10:05pm and a few scenes containing Sarina, Madeleine's school teacher and her high school friend Ben were interesting. But, by and large I found the book rambled too much and because of this it was hard to feel much for the characters or the story itself.

Thanks to Bloggingforbooks.com for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.