Reviews - Henry Henry | The StoryGraph

374 reviews for:

Henry Henry

Allen Bratton

3.69 AVERAGE

nahnopeuhmmsureok's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

slshules's review against another edition

3.25

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was— something. Every page I read left me with a feeling of dread deep in my chest. Just a lingering off-kilter emotion that haunted my conversations for the rest of the day. I couldn’t stop talking about this book. I kept going “god this book I’m reading is weird” often to my family who had heard me mumble the same statement five times during our dinner. But… god this book was weird.
I enjoyed it. I consumed the book slowly, as if detailing each page and trying to piece together the feelings that were playing out.
And yet, I am not certain I understand its meaning. The book left me feeling unsatisfied, and the ending was just something I was ready to get through so that I could say it was over. Which I found odd since I had so thoroughly read the other pages before. Yet, I found myself wanting more from the ending. Something more tangible. Something that showed some aspect of change here. Hal, our main character, doesn’t really do anything during the end. Large plot points happen around him. Sure he makes some decisions but never really the major ones. For example:

he happens to be gay, ie: not a choice. He gets shot on accident. His boyfriend defends him and argues with his dad about Hal’s abuse: not something Hal did. Yes he did then try to stop the argument but that was purely as a reaction.

Hal’s actions are—from what I can remember—all reactionary. He never takes agency in his own story.

There is an argument to be made that this is the point the author is making. That Hal is trapped in this cycle of generational abuse, one that he can’t escape. However, that would have been better showed if Hal actually tried to get out of the cycle. Most of what he did during the book is avoid reality and then complain about reality when he had to face it.

Yes, the relationships were complicated. Yes, this was a tangled web of things and emotions. But in the end, I was not satisfied by how the novel handled itself by the ending. The writing style was beautiful, though long winded at times and slightly off topic. The imagery and metaphors were subtle. But even with its positives, the large negative still stands: it was not satisfying, and I seemed to have missed the point.

This book may be for other people, but if you read it, don’t talk to me about it? I still feel this looming sense of doom in my chest when I think about the book.

caeru's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

scarlxtc's review against another edition

3.75

dark slow-paced

pey333's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

cbiersmith's review against another edition

2.5

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

No one in the book was redeemable. I started to root for the protagonist and then he would do something stupid and awful and just repeat the same patterns.
And the ending was a flop. Very disturbing also.