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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Well. That was bleak.
I don’t know what I expected from a novel about an off-grid all-female commune headed by a megalomaniac matriarch with a penchant for raw potatoes and rage-rituals, but Spoilt Creatures somehow managed to give me less and more at the same time. Less plot, more mood. Less sense, more simmering weirdness. And weirdly? I didn’t hate it.
Let’s be clear. This is Lord of the Flies, but if everyone was menstruating and quoting Adrienne Rich. It’s a tale of slow-burn disintegration, both communal and personal, with not a single character you’d want to share a meal (or a garden hoe) with. The women of Breach House are feral, yes, but also kind of boring, which is an odd combination. Every one of them seems vaguely broken, vaguely cruel, and vaguely unwashed. And yet, I kept turning the pages.
Iris, the protagonist, is a 32-year-old damp dishcloth of a woman who drifts into the commune after a break-up and... just sort of vibes there for a while. She’s listless, naive, and one step away from being swallowed whole by the mud and moss of the Kent countryside. Her crush on the enigmatic Hazel is what passes for a heartbeat in this story, but even that never fully ignites. Still, there’s something hypnotic about watching her unravel, one muddy footstep at a time.
And then there’s Blythe. Queen Bee. Cult Mom. Swanning around like some post-menopausal pagan god, dictating diets and doling out passive-aggressive wisdom in between slow, creeping acts of psychological warfare. She’s awful. I was fascinated.
The writing is strong, unsettling in a way that sneaks up on you. There’s no melodrama, no real climax, just a slow rot that sets in and never lifts. It's strangely compelling, in the same way that watching mold grow under a microscope is compelling. You don’t enjoy it, exactly. But you can’t look away.
Is it perfect? No. The pacing drags. The characters blur. The female rage theme veers dangerously close to parody at times. And the ending, while disturbing, lands a bit like a wet thud rather than the knife twist I was hoping for. Still, I admire Twigg’s commitment to the discomfort. She leans into the squalor. Into the pettiness and mess of people trying (and failing) to build utopia.
Three stars from me. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it, but I’ll be thinking about it every time I see a group of women doing trust falls in a field. And that, I suppose, is its own kind of success.
I don’t know what I expected from a novel about an off-grid all-female commune headed by a megalomaniac matriarch with a penchant for raw potatoes and rage-rituals, but Spoilt Creatures somehow managed to give me less and more at the same time. Less plot, more mood. Less sense, more simmering weirdness. And weirdly? I didn’t hate it.
Let’s be clear. This is Lord of the Flies, but if everyone was menstruating and quoting Adrienne Rich. It’s a tale of slow-burn disintegration, both communal and personal, with not a single character you’d want to share a meal (or a garden hoe) with. The women of Breach House are feral, yes, but also kind of boring, which is an odd combination. Every one of them seems vaguely broken, vaguely cruel, and vaguely unwashed. And yet, I kept turning the pages.
Iris, the protagonist, is a 32-year-old damp dishcloth of a woman who drifts into the commune after a break-up and... just sort of vibes there for a while. She’s listless, naive, and one step away from being swallowed whole by the mud and moss of the Kent countryside. Her crush on the enigmatic Hazel is what passes for a heartbeat in this story, but even that never fully ignites. Still, there’s something hypnotic about watching her unravel, one muddy footstep at a time.
And then there’s Blythe. Queen Bee. Cult Mom. Swanning around like some post-menopausal pagan god, dictating diets and doling out passive-aggressive wisdom in between slow, creeping acts of psychological warfare. She’s awful. I was fascinated.
The writing is strong, unsettling in a way that sneaks up on you. There’s no melodrama, no real climax, just a slow rot that sets in and never lifts. It's strangely compelling, in the same way that watching mold grow under a microscope is compelling. You don’t enjoy it, exactly. But you can’t look away.
Is it perfect? No. The pacing drags. The characters blur. The female rage theme veers dangerously close to parody at times. And the ending, while disturbing, lands a bit like a wet thud rather than the knife twist I was hoping for. Still, I admire Twigg’s commitment to the discomfort. She leans into the squalor. Into the pettiness and mess of people trying (and failing) to build utopia.
Three stars from me. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it, but I’ll be thinking about it every time I see a group of women doing trust falls in a field. And that, I suppose, is its own kind of success.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Reqlly good depiction of manipulative characters
You know that sound that is being trending on social media ¡Oh I love to me a woman! If I should describe this book will be exactly that feeling. I am one of the lucky people who got access to this ARC thanks to netgally, the publisher and the author. I had no idea what this books as about when I started reading I couldn't set my head on the book. But is beautifully written the whole plot unfoll in such a intelligently and delightfull way. I enjoy so much the concept of the book. I just had one trouble with the storyline and it didn’t let me enjoy fully the book. I like the character development too and find this could be a brilliant book for many female readers.
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read 50 pages and ultimately I was bored. But I also had real trouble reconciling why the protagonist joined what, from the very beginning, is very obviously a cult. Maybe you need to read more to understand but it genuinely read like "I've broken up with someone, I'm a bit fed up because I've had to move back into my mum's, yeah I'll join cult"...
My only question: WHY WERE THEY WEARING BRAS IN THE ALL-WOMEN COMMUNITY???
I liked the theme, didn’t like most parts of the novel, however the ending was beautifully written.
Some themes I liked:
I liked how lines of the individual and the group was slowly demolished then appeared again.
I liked the mother-daughter relationship. I liked the Iris-Hazel relationship, too, although it very much reminded me of Girl Interrupted - feeling like I have already witnessed it.
However, most parts of the book were over-explained and repeated the same sentences over and over. (e.g. Blythe always saying the same things about women raped out there etc.)
Sometimes the text even feels aggressive, over-explaining things, to be sure that it is obvious how Iris is thinking about men, how they are bad ( they are just laying at home having nothing to worry about except for work and receding hairlines), how they are whole different species. When she describes sg Nathan has done, there is always some kind of explanation, that Nathan was oppressive and how he treated her badly. It would have been so much better without these little reasonings, not letting the reader come to her own judgment, but having everything prepared, over-simplified.
Some parts are therefore cliches, portraying men violent and women soft, and the text makes sure it is obvious to everyone.
The ending works so well because it is about the loss of words, Iris not being capable to express herself, confused, doesn’t know what to think.
Spoilers ahead
Some parts feel very unrealistic , like the pictures - i don’t get it why would Scott put in so much effort of making leaflets and posters of the women.
The other thing - it might just be me- but these grown up women act like teenagers. They are very childish. Of course there is a sense of losing the individuality within the group but still, they seem so naive and child-like, it becomes annoying at one point.
This part I liked very much;
“They stood back to make room, Pearl on her back like a bug, her legs at a strange angle, and Nlythe no longer even there, fled like a ghost, fucking coward, probably deep in the woods by now.
Somewhere in the back of my head, I heard my father say: you shouldn’t start what you can’t finish.”
It is so good as the men’s world lingers back into Iris’ mind and turn against Blythe, I love the irony in this, so good.
I liked the theme, didn’t like most parts of the novel, however the ending was beautifully written.
Some themes I liked:
I liked how lines of the individual and the group was slowly demolished then appeared again.
I liked the mother-daughter relationship. I liked the Iris-Hazel relationship, too, although it very much reminded me of Girl Interrupted - feeling like I have already witnessed it.
However, most parts of the book were over-explained and repeated the same sentences over and over. (e.g. Blythe always saying the same things about women raped out there etc.)
Sometimes the text even feels aggressive, over-explaining things, to be sure that it is obvious how Iris is thinking about men, how they are bad ( they are just laying at home having nothing to worry about except for work and receding hairlines), how they are whole different species. When she describes sg Nathan has done, there is always some kind of explanation, that Nathan was oppressive and how he treated her badly. It would have been so much better without these little reasonings, not letting the reader come to her own judgment, but having everything prepared, over-simplified.
Some parts are therefore cliches, portraying men violent and women soft, and the text makes sure it is obvious to everyone.
The ending works so well because it is about the loss of words, Iris not being capable to express herself, confused, doesn’t know what to think.
Spoilers ahead
Some parts feel very unrealistic , like the pictures - i don’t get it why would Scott put in so much effort of making leaflets and posters of the women.
The other thing - it might just be me- but these grown up women act like teenagers. They are very childish. Of course there is a sense of losing the individuality within the group but still, they seem so naive and child-like, it becomes annoying at one point.
This part I liked very much;
“They stood back to make room, Pearl on her back like a bug, her legs at a strange angle, and Nlythe no longer even there, fled like a ghost, fucking coward, probably deep in the woods by now.
Somewhere in the back of my head, I heard my father say: you shouldn’t start what you can’t finish.”
It is so good as the men’s world lingers back into Iris’ mind and turn against Blythe, I love the irony in this, so good.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes