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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
I loved this so much. The writing was gorgeous and everyone was so awful and messy and a lot. I genuinely didn’t predict the twists the story took. While it was kind of in the vein of many other psychological thrillers, it felt like it had more meat and heat to it. Give me your violent, complex friendships and your commentaries on women in society and your sour hidden by sweet.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
I used to joke with library patrons and tell them not to read more than one Jodi Picoult novel in a row. To safeguard their mental health, you know.
Then I read 'You Were Made for This' by Michelle Sacks, and now Jodi Picoult seems like a perfect, happy, summer day full of sunshine and roses.
I won't lie - I was gripped from the first chapter, and read it in one sitting, but the storyline and the characters left me a little catatonic. I can't think of a single character who was actually likable - well, maybe the baby. A dark, haunting read full of deeply flawed characters who will leave you wondering if there is any good left in the world.
Please only read if you're at least in semi-solid mental health - I'm only 20% joking here.
Then I read 'You Were Made for This' by Michelle Sacks, and now Jodi Picoult seems like a perfect, happy, summer day full of sunshine and roses.
I won't lie - I was gripped from the first chapter, and read it in one sitting, but the storyline and the characters left me a little catatonic. I can't think of a single character who was actually likable - well, maybe the baby. A dark, haunting read full of deeply flawed characters who will leave you wondering if there is any good left in the world.
Please only read if you're at least in semi-solid mental health - I'm only 20% joking here.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The dynamic between the three main characters got fairly more absurd as I read each chapter. Usually, I like to give characters the benefit of the doubt before reading, but that quickly changed as I got to know these characters more. That's why I highly recommend this book if you're interested in horrific reads like this one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment
I am conflicted about this book—it was compelling in the sense that it has a page-turner quality to it. I wanted to know what happened next, but I had to sort of shut off the critical thinking part of my brain in order to keep reading.
The characters all hate each other and they are all such bad people. There are allusions to the backstory which would potentially explain some of their actions, but that never really builds to anything meaningful.
I also think there is meant to be a message about the damaging way society views motherhood as the ultimate measure of a woman’s worth, but that gets muddled enough that I’m totally sure it was intentional or not.
The characters all hate each other and they are all such bad people. There are allusions to the backstory which would potentially explain some of their actions, but that never really builds to anything meaningful.
I also think there is meant to be a message about the damaging way society views motherhood as the ultimate measure of a woman’s worth, but that gets muddled enough that I’m totally sure it was intentional or not.
CW (for the book): child abuse, child murder, sexual abuse of a child (past, heavily implied), strongly misogynistic language/views, suicide, white supremacist views stated by characters, animal death, hunting, abuse/toxic relationships between adults, attempted murder as punishment
I didn't enjoy the slow, sparse writing style, although that's a personal thing & not a critique of the writing. I did enjoy the depiction of an entirely toxic friendship, although too much of the story was about Sam's rampant misogyny instead. There are five (5) characters in the entire cast who are non-terrible in this - the children (2), the therapist, one dead person, and the old man who has a farm. Everyone else is awful, especially the main three characters, but even the side characters - the neighbours are white supremacists, the random man Merry meets in a café is a creep, and Christopher is a stalker.
The three main characters are pretty deeply traumatised as a result of their childhoods and either abusive or neglectful parents (other reviewers have said this was vague, but the depiction of Sam's mother is fairly clear to me as one of sexually abuse, at least later on). However, they're so relentlessly awful - Merry's cruelty and sense of superiority, Sam's viciousness towards women (and what seemed like implications of sexual assault in his dismissal, although it was never clear if it was related to that or to the power imbalance between a professor & his students), in particular - that sympathy for them as characters is difficult to find, even if one does feel sympathetic to their experience of horrific childhood events.
I didn't enjoy the slow, sparse writing style, although that's a personal thing & not a critique of the writing. I did enjoy the depiction of an entirely toxic friendship, although too much of the story was about Sam's rampant misogyny instead. There are five (5) characters in the entire cast who are non-terrible in this - the children (2), the therapist, one dead person, and the old man who has a farm. Everyone else is awful, especially the main three characters, but even the side characters - the neighbours are white supremacists, the random man Merry meets in a café is a creep, and Christopher is a stalker.
The three main characters are pretty deeply traumatised as a result of their childhoods and either abusive or neglectful parents (other reviewers have said this was vague, but the depiction of Sam's mother is fairly clear to me as one of sexually abuse, at least later on). However, they're so relentlessly awful - Merry's cruelty and sense of superiority, Sam's viciousness towards women (and what seemed like implications of sexual assault in his dismissal, although it was never clear if it was related to that or to the power imbalance between a professor & his students), in particular - that sympathy for them as characters is difficult to find, even if one does feel sympathetic to their experience of horrific childhood events.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A dark and horrifying story of a marriage full of deceit. Each character is more horrifying then the next. The author has a gift of constructing sentences that are ambiguous and could lead you to several different conclusions about the events of the story. Overall a superb first novel.