Dramapuppy's Reviews > The Catcher in the Rye

This book is not good. It just isn't.

You can analyze it for symbols and hidden meanings all you want, and yeah, you'll look smart. There's a lot to find. But if you step back and try to just read this book without overanalyzing, it's a total mess. There are no likable characters with satisfying character arcs. Holden is annoying and repetitive. There is no plot development.

It's just a teenager wandering around talking about sex and how he thinks he knows everything. Was this groundbreaking at the time? The first YA? I don't really care. We have better YA now. YA that accurately portrays teenagers without turning them into unlikable jerks with limited vocabularies (phony, phony, phony).

If this were published today, and someone analyzed it for meanings and themes, it wouldn't be an essay. It would be a "fan theory" on tumblr. Historical context be damned- I'm reviewing this book today, and today, I don't like it.