My honest review of Donnalyn Vojta’s Hope In Paris.
It’s not the first time I read a book whose protagonist and narrating voice is unable to act and change the course of action. But it’s the first time the story is told through the eyes of three teddy bears. The content warning specified it wasn’t going to be a story suitable for kids, and so I was very curious to see how the presence of something we associate with small children could mesh with more serious themes.
And I have to say that it works. At first I was a bit startled by the naivety of one of the three narrating voices, how it seemed to be oblivious to a lot of red flags we women are taught to recognize. But if you think about it, it absolutely make sense that a stuffed toy has little to no awareness to certain contexts, and the bear is quick to change its mind as soon as things get serious.
A couple of days after finishing the book I can say that it fits the story better than a less naive teddy bear: it’s true that we’re past suspension of disbelief here, but I still see it as a more believable attitude. It also shows how easy it is to downplay or minimize abusive behavior, to believe it is out of love instead of possession.
Moreover, and then I swear I’m done overthinking the teddy bear part, in a sense makes the tone of the entire story a little less gloomy: serious, for sure, but not as heavy as it could have been.
Despite its serious theme and how many stuff goes on in the story, the bool flows easily, so much that I was able to devour it in a little more than two days. It was one of the rare occasions where I didn’t try to look for clues or explanations since the beginning, and I missed some obvious clues that would have made the reveals clear in advance, and I have to say that despite the initial “oh, I should have seen that…” it felt good to just sit back and enjoy the story for once.
To sum it up, as much as before reading “Hope in Paris” I would have thought that a story told through the eyes of a teddy bear was just an interesting exercise of creative writing, it ended up working as a full-length story. And there’s more: both the book cover and the book epilogue promise a continuation of the series.
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