Esme Pepper review (spoilers for those who haven't read it!!)
this review includes spoilers, so if you haven't read Esme Pepper yet, there's your warning :) just finished reading Esme Pepper and honestly? I actually really liked it! I have a couple of criticisms, but overall I think it's one of JW's better recent books :)
what I liked:
- Esme as a character. I thought she was a great protagonist! I loved how she was more outgoing and sure of herself than some of JW's more bookish and shy characters (though I actually relate to them much more!) but at the same time, even though she obviously had her moments, I loved how she was genuinely caring as well. I also thought she was very unintentionally funny at times - quite a few times I laughed at the narration!
- Pops. He is the absolute sweetest omg. Please protect him at all costs.
- >!the fact that dementia was touched upon because it needs more understanding and more awareness. I realised very quickly that Pops was likely suffering from some form of early stage dementia. I recognised several of the signs almost immediately because sadly, my nan passed away last year after suffering from dementia for several years. The way Pops couldn't remember Esme's name, the way he couldn't remember things that had happened a few minutes ago, but could remember things from his younger years and all of his gnomes names perfectly, etc: it was very realistic. It made me very sad to read it though, because having lived with and cared for somebody with dementia I know all too well what the future will likely look like for Pops and Mrs Hawes. Dementia is a heartbreaking illness from which there sadly is no getting better and it's so sad to think about what the future will look like for them. !<
- the fact that >!Pops grew up in foster care. I thought that was a nice touch and I can imagine that over the years with fostering kids, he was able to sympathise with them and understand some of what they were going through. !<
- the gnomes. I thought it was beautiful how Pops kept all his gnomes and how much he cared so much bout all of them!
- Mrs Hawes. Even though Esme doesn't like her very much at first, I liked how she grew to like her a lot more by the end, and I especially loved Mrs Hawes's relationship with Pops 🥹 I also thought it was very cute >!how Esme called her auntie Moira right at the very end! That was really sweet !< - Alesha. I thought she was a great social worker (though I was convinced Elaine from Tracy Beaker or someone would pop up somewhere) and I loved her hairstyles, they sounded so cool!
- the representation of foster care. Granted, I have no experience of foster care and I don't work within that particular sector, but it felt reasonably realistic and I did like how Esme mentioned that her mum once said that care homes are not like they are in Tracy Beaker 😂
- the relationship between Esme and her mum. Although we literally only get to see it for a few pages, you can tell that they have a very good relationship with one another and that they are genuinely very close, and that's lovely.
Criticisms:
Pacing, ever so slightly. A big criticism of some other Jacqueline Wilson books, Katy being one of the best examples, is that it can sometimes take a while to get into the actual story and the actual main plot. In Katy it takes like eight or nine chapters to even get to her accident, which admittedly is true to the original story (in which the accident doesn't happen immediately), but does drag the book out slightly. Here, we got straight into the action, which is a good thing. However, I do think that it would have been nice to have maybe seen a chapter of Esme and her mum before the school day where the book started, and I think that the ending could have been a little bit less rushed: or there could have maybe been an afterword where Esme could have told us what happened next, like in Queenie or Baby Love. I did appreciate it not being dragged out, but I do think that we could have maybe had a little bit more at the beginning and end...
the fact that the teachers were aware of what was going on with Joseph, but to some extent acted like it was okay for him to bully others because of his home life, which it really wasn't? that part didn't sit very well with me
just the idea of Esme's mum trying to cram a huge dolls house into a bag for life without getting caught. It's not supposed to be funny but I can't stop laughing thinking about it 😂 this isn't a criticism of Jacky by the way, it's a criticism of Esme's mum. How on Earth did she think that that was ever going to work out?! 😂
and obviously, the one that's already been mentioned: Rachael Dean's illustrations. I don't think they're terrible, I do think that she is good at what she does and some of them are quite cute, but they don't feel like JW's work. I'm probably just very biased because I grew up with Nick Sharratt illustrations and I'm so used to seeing them, but it just doesn't feel right. I do agree though about them being inconsistent in this book - Esme looking suddenly a lot younger and smaller in certain ones - and the error with the design on Mrs Hawes's apron when they first arrive at the foster home. I'm glad though that I didn't spot any writing consistency errors!
Overall, I really like this one and I do think it's a lot better than a lot of Jacky's recent work, however there were a couple of things that I personally would have changed What do you guys think?