Vinegar Girl is a short novel based off of the Shakespeare play, The Taming of the Shrew. The highlight of the novel is Kate, the main character. Her personality is so thorny and funny, and although she might be displeasurable to meet if she weren’t fictional, she is a delight to read about.  Anne Tyler also paints her other characters well, even though the book is so short.

I liked the book in general–although I took off a point because there were a couple of parts that I thought were a bit strange or could have been better written.  The epilogue, for example, was a little too weird, and there was a character brought into it who didn’t quite seem to fit. Overall, however, the book was a fun read and interesting to think about. I would still recommend Vinegar Girl.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  13 religious exclamations; 13 mild obscenities; 2 religious profanities; 3 derogatory names; 3 anatomical terms.

Violence/Gore:  An adult character talks about how he punched a young adult.

Sex/Nudity:  A man kisses a woman on the cheek and hugs her; a man kisses a woman on the cheek; a woman kisses a man; a teen assumes out loud that an adult couple have been making out.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of a family member, discussion about being an orphan, robbery, breaking immigration laws.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink alcohol.