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nellvin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Fates and Furies is a beautifully-spun epic, drawing inspiration from Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, and ancient mythology. The luscious descriptions are a delight to the senses, with a strong caveat that the descriptions of people's bodies (specifically fat bodies) were so distracting and upsetting to the point that I might otherwise be giving this book a higher rating. Groff's details and rich characters are so undermined by her apparent obsession with body weight and her tired associations. In an otherwise complex, vibrant world we are still limited by the outdated symbolism that skininess represents goodness and purity and fatness represents immorality and gluttony. I can handle edgy, I can handle politically-incorrect to certain degrees, but the constant reminder of this binary became more than a minor, ignorable annoyance. Still, the writing was otherwise beautiful, unique, challenging, and I was sucked into the world of these characters, their love, their struggles. I've seen a few reviews that her other books do not have this issue, so maybe I'll give her another chance.
bookworm91's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
dunnadam's review against another edition
1.0
I really didn't like this book and can't BELIEVE Amazon picked it as the best fiction book of 2015. I see this story as the Emperor's New Clothes, and for some reason others don't seem to be able to tell that he's really naked and there's nothing there.
The book is pompous and over-written with no likeable characters. All the characters have ridiculous names like Professor Murgatroyd, Mathilde, Chollie, Muvva, Gawain, etc. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Every time I read the name Muvva I was reminded of the Seinfeld episode of the woman whose name rhymes with a female body part.
The action stops at one point for the following observation preceded and followed by section breaks:
"[MATHILDE'S PRAYER: Let me be the wave. And if I cannot be the wave, let me be the rupture at the bottom. Let me be that terrible first rift in the dark.]"
Anyone have any idea what this means?
I started to get into the book a little when they were writing the opera only to then be confronted later with the opera itself, 20 pages or so of an opera stuck in the middle of the book. I didn't read it. I can't think of anyone who would.
The story makes no sense, the book bears no resemblance to Gone Girl despite reports, the people are all bitter and evil. Other reviews said the second half is better and it is in that it is easier to read but I would not say better.
I kept thinking I should put the book down while I was reading and really wish I had.
The book is pompous and over-written with no likeable characters. All the characters have ridiculous names like Professor Murgatroyd, Mathilde, Chollie, Muvva, Gawain, etc. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Every time I read the name Muvva I was reminded of the Seinfeld episode of the woman whose name rhymes with a female body part.
The action stops at one point for the following observation preceded and followed by section breaks:
"[MATHILDE'S PRAYER: Let me be the wave. And if I cannot be the wave, let me be the rupture at the bottom. Let me be that terrible first rift in the dark.]"
Anyone have any idea what this means?
I started to get into the book a little when they were writing the opera only to then be confronted later with the opera itself, 20 pages or so of an opera stuck in the middle of the book. I didn't read it. I can't think of anyone who would.
The story makes no sense, the book bears no resemblance to Gone Girl despite reports, the people are all bitter and evil. Other reviews said the second half is better and it is in that it is easier to read but I would not say better.
I kept thinking I should put the book down while I was reading and really wish I had.
baileyk123's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
chanancrompton's review against another edition
This book was depressing and left me feeling empty and sad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Child abuse, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Suicide
stephaniesteen73's review against another edition
4.0
Surprising twist. Second half read faster than the first half.
brisingr's review against another edition
3.0
She pitied them, the cowardly ones. Because she, too, despaired; she, too, was blinded by the dark, but to turn your back is too easy. Cheating.
probably the most complicated book to give a rating to this year. I fell in love with Lauren Groff as an author young, when bone-deep tired of first semester of English literature, pre-1000s, I sat in a class of American contemporary short fiction, and I listened to the coolest professor I've ever seen discuss how important she thinks is to have a rounded knowledge of literature, that is not just a chronological passing through literary canon. I was nineteen and I was learning to hate books.
And for years, I carried the name of the authors I met in that class, knowing that I am to return to them. And here I am, at last introducing myself to the novels of Lauren Groff. So much of it still familiar, and my favourite thing still remains the prose and the writing style: cutting and floral at the same time, filled with such humane characters, showing so much and telling so little. I loved how I could hate so much about the story itself, but loving the process of reading it so much. This is a book that, following its protagonists' fates and furies, decides to show them naked of their prestige and pretenses. And how the fates and furies follow the narrative, cutting through the sentences to give their own opinion, following this set of characters, so banal and so furiously faulty, as if they are the center of the universe. [Aren't all of us just that?] So I really adored how this book is built, made just to be undone, and regardless of how much I might want to, I cannot make myself give it any lower of a rating.
probably the most complicated book to give a rating to this year. I fell in love with Lauren Groff as an author young, when bone-deep tired of first semester of English literature, pre-1000s, I sat in a class of American contemporary short fiction, and I listened to the coolest professor I've ever seen discuss how important she thinks is to have a rounded knowledge of literature, that is not just a chronological passing through literary canon. I was nineteen and I was learning to hate books.
And for years, I carried the name of the authors I met in that class, knowing that I am to return to them. And here I am, at last introducing myself to the novels of Lauren Groff. So much of it still familiar, and my favourite thing still remains the prose and the writing style: cutting and floral at the same time, filled with such humane characters, showing so much and telling so little. I loved how I could hate so much about the story itself, but loving the process of reading it so much. This is a book that, following its protagonists' fates and furies, decides to show them naked of their prestige and pretenses. And how the fates and furies follow the narrative, cutting through the sentences to give their own opinion, following this set of characters, so banal and so furiously faulty, as if they are the center of the universe. [Aren't all of us just that?] So I really adored how this book is built, made just to be undone, and regardless of how much I might want to, I cannot make myself give it any lower of a rating.
sabdep's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
alchase23's review against another edition
4.0
Encapsulating writing, something inherently human about the way she captures the depth behind the shallow; also an unexpected profile on privilege and feminism
katia23's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes