Book Review: Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Pregnant 17-year-old Novalee Nation is on her way toward the bright lights of California, accompanied by her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens. But Willy gets cold feet and abandons her at a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. Novalee's life savings amount to less than ten dollars, so she moves into the Walmart, sleeping there at night and venturing out during the day. With the help of the eccentric Sister Husband, and Lexie Coop, a nurses' aide, Novalee tries to get her life in order for the sake of her expected child, Americus Nation.

I picked this book up mainly because I adored the movie, however if I ever thought the book would be better than the movie I was clearly mistaken. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed ready the book, I mean it didn't make me want to through it on the ground and start stomping in it but it definitely didn't inspire me to read it over and over again. I think the main thing the threw me off was that even when the character's were older they still sounded like naive teenagers and I can understand that for Novalee but not so much for Forney as he was suppose to have been from money and education. Another thing that just bothered me was that the author Billie Letts seemed to enjoy running away with her descriptions as if she was just trying to up her page count by telling you the same thing in multiple ways within the same paragraph.

If I was going to recommend anything to anyone it would be the movie, you get the better parts of the book without the headache that comes from banging your head against the wall while asking yourself why, why did I ever decide to read the book. The changes that were made for the film were clearly made for the better of the story. Just by tweaking a scene here or a conversation there gave the character's real growth while keeping with who they were meant to be.



View all my reviews