A review by vivthebookworm
The Pearl by John Steinbeck

4.5

A cautionary tale that boiled my blood. I hate the circumstances around the misfortunes that kept piling this family. How greed and lack of education and how there's a system in place that makes it so this family can't win. I knew that it would end badly but kept hoping it wouldn't, that it would end well for this family. And they changed, though whether for the better or worse honestly can be interpreted either way. They fought and they lost, learning the world is not simple but cruel and hungry. It's strange, I was riveted reading it and felt so many emotions in just 90 pages, an accomplishment by itself. But it's the kind of story I would only read once. The ending angered me yet was poetic in how much it fit, no matter how much I wish it isn't the case.