I wasn't going to write a mini essay...but then I had a lot of feelings.
I would have loved more of Bel, but also, yes, the dialect definitely isn't right. (Most of the dialect words Bel was using were probably more for someone a gen older than him, and they didn't...match up together, I guess? But the most egregious award goes to when Bel starts tossing pound notes. Which haven't existed since 1988.)
So because of that - how much Bel's dialogue was out of whack - I felt I didn't get enough of his essence as a character, when there are so many little details that hint that I would love him! But because of how intensely stereotypical his dialogue was he ended up reading as a flat character to me, because he didn't sound like a real person at all.
This is, you know, the teeniest tiniest gripe in a big book. But it's made my confidence shake, a bit, because if future books are set in other cities then...are other international readers going to get the same vibe? Is the premise going to work, going global, when NY and its characters are so lovingly painted?
no subject
I would have loved more of Bel, but also, yes, the dialect definitely isn't right. (Most of the dialect words Bel was using were probably more for someone a gen older than him, and they didn't...match up together, I guess? But the most egregious award goes to when Bel starts tossing pound notes. Which haven't existed since 1988.)
So because of that - how much Bel's dialogue was out of whack - I felt I didn't get enough of his essence as a character, when there are so many little details that hint that I would love him! But because of how intensely stereotypical his dialogue was he ended up reading as a flat character to me, because he didn't sound like a real person at all.
This is, you know, the teeniest tiniest gripe in a big book. But it's made my confidence shake, a bit, because if future books are set in other cities then...are other international readers going to get the same vibe? Is the premise going to work, going global, when NY and its characters are so lovingly painted?