I spent the first several chapters of this book hoping that Meg, Jo, Beth, or Amy would die, since that would mean that something interesting would happen. But then I realized that if one of them did die, they would do it in such a virtuous, praiseworthy fashion that everyone would learn a valuable life-lesson from. So from then on I kept on hoping that one of the sisters would turn up pregnant. Alas, it never happened, but one of the sisters did die-- and taught Jo a life-lesson in the process. And by the end of the story, everything that had made the characters even vaguely interesting at the beginning had been slowly beaten out of them by society. Jo wouldn't do her writing anymore, Laurie wasn't so adventurous so much anymore, and Amy wasn't even stupid anymore. The narrative style also got on my nerves: Jo would tell us she liked books and that she was a bookworm, and then the narrator would chime in and tell us that she was a bookworm. And that she liked books. Thanks. Not only did the narrator condescend to the audience, but she also enjoyed condescending to the characters, especially Amy, the girl so retarded that even the narrator made fun of her. By far the worst chapter was the one where Marmie taught her daughters the valuable life-lesson that you can't even take a week off of work in your entire life, because your bird will die and you'll ruin your dinner. So keep on working forever! And always be virtuous and never be afraid to lecture to your friends about what they're doing wrong in their lives. They'll love it.