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booksandbulletjournaling's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Infertility
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Alcohol and Infidelity
scarjs's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Confinement, Bullying, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Self harm
sophielinehan39's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
i found this quite hard to read. slow pacing made it drag. the writing style was quite stilted for me and there were too many surface level perspectives to keep track of rather than one or two more detailed ones. i got halfway through and started skimming and mostly reading about ruth & aidan just to see what happened in the end.
djtrees's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
aooeee's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-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? Yes
3.5
philippakmoore's review
3.0
The fictional debut of an author I've heard a lot about and was intrigued to read, Ruth and Pen follows a day in the life of two Dubliners - psychologist Ruth who is in her mid-late thirties, and Pen who is a teenager who cares passionately about the climate and various other social and environmental issues. If you enjoy a novel that feels like you're in the skin of two people at a crossroads in their very different lives, where their every thought and move is made accessible to you, then you will enjoy this literary novel. For me, one of the characters was far more interesting than the other and while I appreciated the thematic intention of the dual storylines, I was impatient for the narrative to return to the character I found more appealing, but even her story got a bit bleak for me!
Having said that, it's well written, but could have been more poignant and had more impact had the narrative just focused on one character. So, overall, a bit of a mixed bag for me.
With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.
Having said that, it's well written, but could have been more poignant and had more impact had the narrative just focused on one character. So, overall, a bit of a mixed bag for me.
With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.
eshalliday's review
5.0
This is a succulent little book. 'Ruth & Pen' is timid yet doughty, spiritful and unshrinking.
The eponymous characters serve to relate such wet-hearted honesty, and Emilie Pine's vision is something out of the ordinary. Her image-working imbues workaday acts, matters, incidents, with tremendous meaning and all of it rings true.
Pine should be most proud of her even, open and demystifying representation of women's experiences of what it means to be able or not able to bear children; and of women's experiences of homosexuality and asexuality.
I was pleased that Pine shifts her females' concerns away from women-in-Ireland's experiences of being a woman in Ireland, as she lets Ruth, Pen, Claire, Alice, Lisa, Soraya, Jo, and the 'woman-therapist' stand as universal types, rather to explore the tiny messes and the big messes of living.
Emilie Pine traces Dublin like the lines on your palm; I have no doubt that I'll think of Ruth the next time I'm in the National Gallery of Ireland, and of Pen when I'm next by the Hugh Lane.
My sincere gratitude to Hamish Hamilton for the opportunity to read and review an ARC via Netgalley.
The eponymous characters serve to relate such wet-hearted honesty, and Emilie Pine's vision is something out of the ordinary. Her image-working imbues workaday acts, matters, incidents, with tremendous meaning and all of it rings true.
Pine should be most proud of her even, open and demystifying representation of women's experiences of what it means to be able or not able to bear children; and of women's experiences of homosexuality and asexuality.
I was pleased that Pine shifts her females' concerns away from women-in-Ireland's experiences of being a woman in Ireland, as she lets Ruth, Pen, Claire, Alice, Lisa, Soraya, Jo, and the 'woman-therapist' stand as universal types, rather to explore the tiny messes and the big messes of living.
Emilie Pine traces Dublin like the lines on your palm; I have no doubt that I'll think of Ruth the next time I'm in the National Gallery of Ireland, and of Pen when I'm next by the Hugh Lane.
My sincere gratitude to Hamish Hamilton for the opportunity to read and review an ARC via Netgalley.