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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm just not sure what to think about this one. I know it is written more as a way to get inside the narrator's mind and I just don't think it was my style. I thought the personal choices made were definitely red-flag like, but I guess that's what makes her interesting. Just not my thing, but I can see where others might enjoy it.
*3.5… debating 4
i’m not sure i LIKED this book, but i was CONSUMED by it. it raised a lot of interesting things to think about, and while i can see why the author chose the path it had in the back half, i didn’t… like it? then again, if had gone a different way, would i have just found it corny?? hard to say.
this book certainly has left me thinking.
i’m not sure i LIKED this book, but i was CONSUMED by it. it raised a lot of interesting things to think about, and while i can see why the author chose the path it had in the back half, i didn’t… like it? then again, if had gone a different way, would i have just found it corny?? hard to say.
this book certainly has left me thinking.
Something about the last quarter felt anti-climactic to me. I wanted more, I’m not sure what though.
This asks a lot of questions and leaves you with no answers, which is great because you really get to sit with all of the topics that are brought up.
I think I was very misled by the title and how everyone described this book. It has less to do with Vladimir and more to do with self discovery in your later years. Which I actually ended up really enjoying, because I find that there are few FMCs outside of their 20s.
This asks a lot of questions and leaves you with no answers, which is great because you really get to sit with all of the topics that are brought up.
I think I was very misled by the title and how everyone described this book. It has less to do with Vladimir and more to do with self discovery in your later years. Which I actually ended up really enjoying, because I find that there are few FMCs outside of their 20s.
The first two-thirds of this book is pretty standard fare in the "written, workshopped, edited, and published by people with MFAs for people with MFAs to read" genre. The last third is....something else.
Very well written but not quite as enjoyable to read. The feelings of obsession and self loathing are just so extreme and youre told it on every other page that it begins to lose all meaning.
3.5 review. This book is interesting and a challenging perspective for me to sit with, but in a way that I appreciated. Not stellar but worth reading.
This book was utterly addictive. The writing was unputdownable from the get-go, no doubt attributable to the author's experience as a playwrite. I loved being in our narrator's head-- she is so unhinged, yet we are offered a relatively relatable/understandable excuse for each "mistake" she makes: isn't this just the truth of the human experience?
This novel did a wonderful job of exploring tough topics such as motherhood, marriage, and identity throughout aging in a unique and captivating way... particularly for someone who is experiencing none of this currently.
I am still wrapping my head around the ending. While I see how Jonas wanted a way to pull our MC and her husband John back together at the end, and see how this was also a way of making them run into the wall of their aging and need to come to terms with it, I do think it was a bit drastic. It felt a bit rushed and as if Jones was grasping at straws. On the other hand, citing Jonas' experiencing with writing plays, I see why an ending so drastic that creates such a neat tie on the knot would come to mind.
This novel did a wonderful job of exploring tough topics such as motherhood, marriage, and identity throughout aging in a unique and captivating way... particularly for someone who is experiencing none of this currently.
I’m torn on this one, closer to a 3.5. I really loved the writing style and some of the turns of phrases in here, but just cannot get into some of the other aspects where things really take a turn (spoiler: drugging and zip ties). The narrator was intriguing and it was interesting to explore her pov, but would love to actually be shown more rather than constantly told about what was so obsessive for her re: Vladimir.