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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Powerful and linguistically virtuosic, but way too unpleasant and horrifying and frankly disgusting to truly love.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book put me through severe emotional turmoil. I had to take many breaks while reading because of the distress. However, it sure is a powerful and unique piece of literature. I do resent that I feel the author wanted me to sympathize with an abuser and an enabler, and the ending for me was not the closure I had hoped for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Beautiful prose and a poignant glimpse into Maori / pakeha relations and the prisons of gender norms and compulsory heterosexuality. It lost me with the complicity of the two otherwise sympathetic adult characters in horrific physical child abuse. I found Simon by far the most interesting and sympathetic character, but we didn't get enough of the story from his perspective (and never really found out his origins, the central mystery of the story, unless they were explained in a way I didn't understand?)
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse
4.5/5
A rare mix of characters and languages and emotions indeed. Gripping. Kerewin is one of my all-time favorite characters; she's everything I am and so much more. The talent and the energy and the drive. Simply beautiful. I can't forgive Joe though. I can't.Moving on though. The story builds and builds and then the ending. Hardly satisfying. The flow of words was nice, I have to admit. The Maori language has a certain running quality that makes the sprinkling through tolerable, almost pleasant, despite the lack of understanding. So, higher than a four, but not a five. I don't agree with all of it. But I can't deny its unique beauty.
A rare mix of characters and languages and emotions indeed. Gripping. Kerewin is one of my all-time favorite characters; she's everything I am and so much more. The talent and the energy and the drive. Simply beautiful. I can't forgive Joe though. I can't.
Spoiler
I don't see any justification for his violence. Is this how males get? Is this how their logic works? It has no place in society, whatever their excuses and reasoning and past horrific experiences may be. What he did to Simon was unforgivable, and the way the book kept pushing them together was unbearable. No one should go through that much torture and horde the blame for themselves.Spoiler
, especially given all the hinting and foreshadowing. It was all too easy, really. A happy family reunion, after all that? Unlikely
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes