Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation
Very little variation on themes or style, read the first three stories, you've got the idea
Even when read back to back to back, these stories still manage to captivate despite the blunt repetition of themes and character. Not a single dud. The Lame Shall Enter First, Greenleaf, and A View of the Woods were my favorites, Revival and Judgement Day being the weakest imo.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
At first I really struggled to understand the stories and thought “I think these require actual study, so maybe I won’t read them after all.” Then something changed and I understood and the stories became *masterful*. Dark much of the time, but real.
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Oh fine. I'll buck the trend here. I have a memory of reading and liking the author's Wise Blood years ago. This mash-up of Catholicism, William Faulkner and Hieronymus Bosch was, however, a dreary slog indeed.
This is a posthumously published collection of nine short stories that serve as twisted morality plays that I confess I don't totally understand. The various protagonists aren't truly amoral but are unsatisfied with life and mostly lacking in empathy and/or self-awareness and frequently meet gruesome endings. O'Connor can write some beautiful sentences but that just wasn't enough to overcome the piety which is somehow both heavy-handed and abstruse.
I prayed while reading this book...for it to end.
This is a posthumously published collection of nine short stories that serve as twisted morality plays that I confess I don't totally understand. The various protagonists aren't truly amoral but are unsatisfied with life and mostly lacking in empathy and/or self-awareness and frequently meet gruesome endings. O'Connor can write some beautiful sentences but that just wasn't enough to overcome the piety which is somehow both heavy-handed and abstruse.
I prayed while reading this book...for it to end.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A must-read if you’re a fan of “Good Country People” or “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” This anthology is packed with typical O’Connor themes: religion, race, farm life, Southern culture… I could go on. I found it difficult to read the stories back to back (I give it a day or two between them) because they tend to have the same vibe/building of tension towards the climax of the story through character conflict (one of the author’s strengths!). A reader blazing through the stories may find the experience a bit repetitive.