Reviews

Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino

msilkwolfe's review

4.0

4.5 stars - What a strange, poignant book! Bertino’s writing is incredibly beautiful. I read a library copy, otherwise I would’ve been underlining everything! It’s a story of a reluctant bride who is coming to terms with who she is and the hurt she has stored inside her. It feels very new to me, and like I haven’t read anything quite like it before. Love how Bertino blended reality with imagination (sorta like Murakami?!).

rhiannatherad's review against another edition

fast-paced

2.0

teddo101's review

5.0

Received an ARC of Parakeet. I can say without hyperbole that this is not only another extraordinary book from the ever-compelling Bertino but also her most significant and affecting work to date. Through turns both supernatural and profoundly human, "Parakeet" bends the classic narrative journey from alienation to individuality following a character—known to us as only as "The Bride"—whose concerns and collected traumas feel at once startlingly contemporary and achingly universal. Without giving anything away, it's a book whose hard-won optimism comes across as completely genuine, a testament to Bertino's skill and control over her work from the macrocosm of the book to the level of the line, which is where, truth be told, we get the most obvious glimmers of her genius, stories told within the perfect realm of the sentence. I could not recommend this book highly enough.

mauraf's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This book is perfect 

jessiehendrix8's review

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

jperalta's review

reflective medium-paced

5.0

nanyabiznes's review

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

ljutavidra's review

5.0

"Will you be honest with me when I’m present, about me when I’m absent?"

Ostavila sam malo da mi se marinira ova knjiga u podsvesti i nisam odmah htela da pišem recenziju jer a) otišla mi je odmah u omiljene, b) komplikovana je da se objasni.

Ako pročitate samo sinopsis i stignete do onog dela - "preminula baka joj se javila u vidu papagaja" - i pomislite šta je bre ovo, razumem vas u potpunosti. To je bila i moja inicijalna reakcija, ali ne znam šta me je tačno privuklo ovom romanu, imajući u vidu da nisam ljubitelj magičnog realizma. Ovo je nešto sasvim funky fresh i nešto što ne može da se jednostavno smesti u jedan žanr, pa neću to ni pokušavati.

Asocira na Ali Smit, Debru Levi, asocira na sve te romane gde ne znate gde je granica jave, sna, noćne more, toka svesti i sanjarenja na javi. Za divno čudo, konkretni tok radnje postoji, ali protkan scenama koje će vas možda u početku zbuniti, ali sve ima svoj smisao na kraju. Kao Dejvid Linč sa konkretnom porukom. Ima crnog humora, ima feminizma, ima tuge, nade, ima pronalaženja srodnih duša. Ovo je jedna gorko-slatka priča koja je tvrdoglava i čudna, ali je i dalje samo jedna od nas.

allenos's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

kamackei's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75