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asourceoffiction's review against another edition
slow-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
2.0
On paper this should be a brilliant book, and I can see that it is objectively very well written. Unfortunately it just didn't hit the spot for me. There are some really stark similarities to Beartown (a tragic event that has far-reaching consequences), but that didn't do The Mulvaneys any good since Beartown is such a masterpiece. They are both quite contemplative in style, but where I fell in love with Beartown and its incredible characters, the more I learned about the Mulvaneys the less I could empathise with any of them.
At times the story is unbearably anticlimactic; a character will have a huge dramatic journey which sort of fizzles, and then they'll all but disappear from the story for several chapters. There is also so much rampant misogyny and injustice in the way Marianne is treated by her family (and much as it pained me to admit, in the way she begins to treat herself), that I found so little to redeem or forgive in this family. Then by the time these people would come back into the story I had no sympathy or patience left, so I'd be skimming pages because I was bored of all the unnecessary exposition.
Where I really struggled was in how little redemption or justice there was. It may have ended positively in relation to the event that pulls the family apart, but there's no confronting the horrible victim-blaming or the complete refusal to acknowledge the problem or support Marianne when she needed it. And no matter how the characters felt towards each other at the end, I just couldn't forgive any of them and didn't particularly want to.
At times the story is unbearably anticlimactic; a character will have a huge dramatic journey which sort of fizzles, and then they'll all but disappear from the story for several chapters. There is also so much rampant misogyny and injustice in the way Marianne is treated by her family (and much as it pained me to admit, in the way she begins to treat herself), that I found so little to redeem or forgive in this family. Then by the time these people would come back into the story I had no sympathy or patience left, so I'd be skimming pages because I was bored of all the unnecessary exposition.
Where I really struggled was in how little redemption or justice there was. It may have ended positively in relation to the event that pulls the family apart, but there's no confronting the horrible victim-blaming or the complete refusal to acknowledge the problem or support Marianne when she needed it. And no matter how the characters felt towards each other at the end, I just couldn't forgive any of them and didn't particularly want to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, and Alcoholism
Minor: Racial slurs
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