Reviews

Devotion by Hannah Kent

inedb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

nelliesummerfield's review against another edition

Pretty slow moving tbh but truly really beautiful descriptions of the landscape and nature. I enjoyed the historical aspect and the journey to Australia, the detail and clearly well researched boat trip was truly awful, I don’t know how they did it. I guess I also never considered that once they got to land there was literally nothing there, like just an empty field and they had to build houses and stuff from scratch. The romantic side of things wasn’t overt, lots of pining and the moment where they had the kiss didn’t feel like a huge moment which I kind of wish that it had. Moments about her twin brother made me tear up as well as (of course) when they were reunited at the end. The ghost storyline is interesting, not what I thought I was getting myself into but the rules around it were fascinating and I looved the character of Thea’s mother. Overall pretty good read that got me emosh at the end but fairly consistently smooth/slow pace

liz246810's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was the most beautiful prose I have ever read (listened to). I'm not always a fan of slow drawn out descriptions but this was amazing. Descriptions were mesmerizing and lyrical. The descriptions of what happens to the main character are divine. Wonderfully narrated doing true justice to a beautiful book. 

emi_sto's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

hitch's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Beautiful but too long and too sad.

meegsc's review against another edition

5.0

A beautiful, contemplative story. Hannah Kent has such a way with words, it’s like reading poetry. Not a fast paced book, but it’s steeped in so much emotion. I thought I knew what kind of story it was going to be but I was surprised by the turn it took. Loved it a lot.

eshalliday's review against another edition

5.0

Thea was a chink of light in a curtain; when I put my eye to her, the world beyond blazed.

This novel is perfection.

I couldn't bear to finish it.

It did to me what 'Still Life' by Sarah Winman did to me two years ago, and I can't put that into words.

After a few extremely UN-lesbian-friendly books, I was overjoyed to be cupped in Hannah Kent's hands here.

'Devotion' is 'The Mercies' (Kiran Millwood-Hargrave) into 'The Night Ship' (Jess Kidd), into 'Briefly, a Delicious Life' (Nell Stevens), and finishes up at 'Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter' (Lizzie Pook), and somewhere else entirely its own.

Superb! Sublime!

All hail, Aussie fiction.

mangomimy28's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

motty's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

cliterarystudies's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25