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brisingr's review against another edition
3.0
She pitied them, the cowardly ones. Because she, too, despaired; she, too, was blinded by the dark, but to turn your back is too easy. Cheating.
probably the most complicated book to give a rating to this year. I fell in love with Lauren Groff as an author young, when bone-deep tired of first semester of English literature, pre-1000s, I sat in a class of American contemporary short fiction, and I listened to the coolest professor I've ever seen discuss how important she thinks is to have a rounded knowledge of literature, that is not just a chronological passing through literary canon. I was nineteen and I was learning to hate books.
And for years, I carried the name of the authors I met in that class, knowing that I am to return to them. And here I am, at last introducing myself to the novels of Lauren Groff. So much of it still familiar, and my favourite thing still remains the prose and the writing style: cutting and floral at the same time, filled with such humane characters, showing so much and telling so little. I loved how I could hate so much about the story itself, but loving the process of reading it so much. This is a book that, following its protagonists' fates and furies, decides to show them naked of their prestige and pretenses. And how the fates and furies follow the narrative, cutting through the sentences to give their own opinion, following this set of characters, so banal and so furiously faulty, as if they are the center of the universe. [Aren't all of us just that?] So I really adored how this book is built, made just to be undone, and regardless of how much I might want to, I cannot make myself give it any lower of a rating.
probably the most complicated book to give a rating to this year. I fell in love with Lauren Groff as an author young, when bone-deep tired of first semester of English literature, pre-1000s, I sat in a class of American contemporary short fiction, and I listened to the coolest professor I've ever seen discuss how important she thinks is to have a rounded knowledge of literature, that is not just a chronological passing through literary canon. I was nineteen and I was learning to hate books.
And for years, I carried the name of the authors I met in that class, knowing that I am to return to them. And here I am, at last introducing myself to the novels of Lauren Groff. So much of it still familiar, and my favourite thing still remains the prose and the writing style: cutting and floral at the same time, filled with such humane characters, showing so much and telling so little. I loved how I could hate so much about the story itself, but loving the process of reading it so much. This is a book that, following its protagonists' fates and furies, decides to show them naked of their prestige and pretenses. And how the fates and furies follow the narrative, cutting through the sentences to give their own opinion, following this set of characters, so banal and so furiously faulty, as if they are the center of the universe. [Aren't all of us just that?] So I really adored how this book is built, made just to be undone, and regardless of how much I might want to, I cannot make myself give it any lower of a rating.
sabdep's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
alchase23's review against another edition
4.0
Encapsulating writing, something inherently human about the way she captures the depth behind the shallow; also an unexpected profile on privilege and feminism
katia23's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
vexyspice's review against another edition
5.0
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Yeah, thats what the book is about and how much we sacrifice for our partners but dont mention it to them. I do love it though.
Yeah, thats what the book is about and how much we sacrifice for our partners but dont mention it to them. I do love it though.
thepoetessa's review against another edition
Didn't want to devote more time to the narrative. Not interested in the way women are treated.
madtnation's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
catbowlin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
savaging's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't want to love this. Rich white people on the east coast? What a cliche topic for a book. Love and marriage? More cliches.
But the depth and the beauty and the humor and the surprise of it all. First it's Romeo and Juliet and then it's Othello and then it's Titus Andronicus and then -- well, I'll leave the final bit off, just read it and see.
Remarkable book. Except for the very last one-page chapter, which tried, it seemed, to tame the furies into a more acceptable story.
But the depth and the beauty and the humor and the surprise of it all. First it's Romeo and Juliet and then it's Othello and then it's Titus Andronicus and then -- well, I'll leave the final bit off, just read it and see.
Remarkable book. Except for the very last one-page chapter, which tried, it seemed, to tame the furies into a more acceptable story.