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2.8 AVERAGE
2.8 AVERAGE
DNF at 50%, one too many sex scenes for my level of interest in the fading love life of a fictional middleaged privileged couple with a missing dog.
Started out slow and seemingly filled with cliches. Turned out to be surprisingly smart and deeply felt.
Throughly enjoyed this book. Love the way the author portrayed a marriage between two people who long ago forgot to include one another in their daily lives resulting in a void that both experience without discussing it. Desperately wanted an epilogue with this one.
Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.
I tried several times to read this book and could not get past the first chapter. While I enjoyed the storyline I was not a fan of all the double adjectives describing every single object. I wish I had the patience to continue reading but it is just not for me.
I tried several times to read this book and could not get past the first chapter. While I enjoyed the storyline I was not a fan of all the double adjectives describing every single object. I wish I had the patience to continue reading but it is just not for me.
I'm not sure what it says when you don't feel like you particularly like or care about a story, but you've highlighted a good third of it... This is a story of a longstanding and not particularly happy marriage and the events unfolding within and around it one summer. It is ugly and messy, but it felt honest and interrogated a lot of things that I could recognize, if not relate to. Neither of the main characters are particularly likable, but I still mostly rooted for them, for some reason? I'm honestly not sure. Also, wow, boy howdy did they know how to fight!
I think what was the most compelling of this whole piece for me was the everydayness of it... the mundane... the not-specialness. So many stories require something exceptional to happen or one of the characters to be exceptional and it was as disheartening as it was refreshing to watch these everyday characters go about their everyday marriage. And it is certainly the mark of a good writer to make the ordinary as readable as this is. The prose in this book is insightful and engaging, if a bit chilly; albeit LeFavour lost me every time Alice started thinking about starling mumurations. Perhaps understanding that would have added depth to the book, but it was definitely over my head (bird pun totally intended).
The characters in this are very definitively of a different socioeconomic bracket than myself and I had to look up a lot of the referenced goods. I find that task somewhat exhausting, but I suppose it does in a way flush out the character... when Alice daydreams about a Christopher Wool piece, you do learn a bit about her, so more power to you if you're the classy reader who gets the references without google.
On a completely unrelated note - I absolutely love any non-obvious Austen reference and this book has one and it made me so very happy.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the arc to review.
I think what was the most compelling of this whole piece for me was the everydayness of it... the mundane... the not-specialness. So many stories require something exceptional to happen or one of the characters to be exceptional and it was as disheartening as it was refreshing to watch these everyday characters go about their everyday marriage. And it is certainly the mark of a good writer to make the ordinary as readable as this is. The prose in this book is insightful and engaging, if a bit chilly; albeit LeFavour lost me every time Alice started thinking about starling mumurations. Perhaps understanding that would have added depth to the book, but it was definitely over my head (bird pun totally intended).
The characters in this are very definitively of a different socioeconomic bracket than myself and I had to look up a lot of the referenced goods. I find that task somewhat exhausting, but I suppose it does in a way flush out the character... when Alice daydreams about a Christopher Wool piece, you do learn a bit about her, so more power to you if you're the classy reader who gets the references without google.
On a completely unrelated note - I absolutely love any non-obvious Austen reference and this book has one and it made me so very happy.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the arc to review.
I loved the style of writing but the story didn't keep my attention and it fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
lighthearted
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes