Reviews

Agathe by Anne Cathrine Bomann

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litwithleigh's review against another edition

4.0

Thank you so much to Canadian literary press Book*hug Press for my beautiful gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are ALWAYS honest.

SYNOPSIS

The life of a psychiatrist on the brink of retirement is upended by his patient, Agatha.

MY OPINION

You might've read that synopsis and been like... that's it?? Yes ma'am LOL. Arguably there isn't a lot to this novella. The plot is straightforward and concise. The message is clear: do we fear death or do we fear being regretful in our last moments? In my unprovoked opinion, we fear being regretful. We want to travel, we want to be happy, we want to love, and then – barring an unexpected death – in our final moments, we're forced to reflect on what we did and did not accomplish. It is this reflection that I fear. WHEN THE MASK COMES OFF... WHO AM I??? LMAO

Anyways... I enjoyed the narrator's perspective. Psychologists are so fascinating to me. It's like when you're a kid and you see your teacher at the mall... you're like WTF?? This person has a whole ass LIFE??? Outside of torturing me???? I think of psychologists as ppl who have their shit together, and in a way, I refuse to believe they have any problems because how're you gonna charge ME mad $$$$ when you have your own tings going on??? Nah honey there's only room for one unstable mf on this couch and it's ME (and my many moods).

I found Agatha's character to be wonderfully written. Her struggles were very relatable (not to me obvi..... to a friend........). I really wished we could've spent time inside her head instead of seeing her through the Dr's eyes.

All in all, a nice little read. Thought-provoking despite it's simple and concise prose.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: flowing, concise prose, thought-provoking, narrator POV is illuminating

Cons: some of the translation was odd and I wish it had packed more of a punch to the gut... WRECK ME!!!!

bethanna_hobbs's review against another edition

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2.0

I really wanted this to be better, I loved the premise and the character potential but it just was so unsatisfying.. feels like it wasn’t meant to finish there.