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A review by readingthestars
Jagged Little Pill by Eric Smith
4.0
I was fortunate enough to see this musical on Broadway back in 2020, just a few weeks after it opened, and I loved it. Every character was nuanced, messy, and complicated, and each had something I could relate to. So I'm writing this review with the perspective of knowing the story as originally presented on stage.
I think a big downside of this book is the fact that it's YA - and therefore only have the POVs of the teenage characters. They're very important to the story, but the lack of a Mary Jane POV was definitely felt. Her role was one of my favorites in the musicals (her song "Smiling" was my favorite from the show), and I felt that her story was particularly powerful to everyone in the theatre, so it was sort of odd to not have that perspective in the novel. Adding her POV would have potentially made this book non-YA though, so I sort of understand where the change came from.
While on the topic of POVs, I think that the assault could have been handled a little better in Bella's POV. I feel like she wasn't as fleshed out as she could have been. Also, nowhere was it mentioned that Jo is nonbinary. I know that in the musical's case, the creators claimed they were nonbinary before retracting that statement when the show went to Broadway. But for anyone in the audience, it's very clear that Jo is very much coded as being nonbinary, so it was a bit disappointing to not see that reflected in the book. Many people have looked up to Jo as a nonbinary character on Broadway.
The novel as a whole expands upon side characters (who didn't even have names in the musical) and off-stage scenes, which I liked. We get to meet Phoenix's sister, which added a lot to his character.
The writing is...okay. Two chapters in a row started with the same phrase, so I definitely think there could have been some more editing involved. The writing is sort of basic, but it does get the job done and it kept me interested throughout the whole book, so in my eyes, it did its job.
It may seem like I just listed a bunch of things that I didn't like about the book (which I kind of did lol) but I did enjoy my time reading it. I do really like the story of Jagged Little Pill, and I think it provides a space for a lot of discussion. How the stage musical was handled was messy for sure (just look up some of the controversies surrounding the show), but the story itself has a lot of merit.
I think a big downside of this book is the fact that it's YA - and therefore only have the POVs of the teenage characters. They're very important to the story, but the lack of a Mary Jane POV was definitely felt. Her role was one of my favorites in the musicals (her song "Smiling" was my favorite from the show), and I felt that her story was particularly powerful to everyone in the theatre, so it was sort of odd to not have that perspective in the novel. Adding her POV would have potentially made this book non-YA though, so I sort of understand where the change came from.
While on the topic of POVs, I think that the assault could have been handled a little better in Bella's POV. I feel like she wasn't as fleshed out as she could have been. Also, nowhere was it mentioned that Jo is nonbinary. I know that in the musical's case, the creators claimed they were nonbinary before retracting that statement when the show went to Broadway. But for anyone in the audience, it's very clear that Jo is very much coded as being nonbinary, so it was a bit disappointing to not see that reflected in the book. Many people have looked up to Jo as a nonbinary character on Broadway.
The novel as a whole expands upon side characters (who didn't even have names in the musical) and off-stage scenes, which I liked. We get to meet Phoenix's sister, which added a lot to his character.
The writing is...okay. Two chapters in a row started with the same phrase, so I definitely think there could have been some more editing involved. The writing is sort of basic, but it does get the job done and it kept me interested throughout the whole book, so in my eyes, it did its job.
It may seem like I just listed a bunch of things that I didn't like about the book (which I kind of did lol) but I did enjoy my time reading it. I do really like the story of Jagged Little Pill, and I think it provides a space for a lot of discussion. How the stage musical was handled was messy for sure (just look up some of the controversies surrounding the show), but the story itself has a lot of merit.