Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Pew by Catherine Lacey

7 reviews

kenley11's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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biobeetle's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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lidia7's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
i'm very confused by the ending but still i enjoyed my time a lot!

i was left with a lot of questions at the end, very spoiler heavy!! :
 
Is there an actual human sacrifice? What happens to the kids? Are they reading names of kids that were sacrificed? Does Pew sacrifice themselves or do they run away? etc...


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rionstorm's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. 

The vibe of town and claustrophobic atmosphere were really nicely created, and the rythmic cycle of meeting character after character and hearing their story/confession/opinions surprising didn't get old, as I expected it would. 

I found it interesting to try and work out the pattern in
who Pew talked to. I think I've settled on it being outsiders, or possibly the people who didn't ask Pew to speak/explain themselves? But I'm not sure. Possibly based on vibes. </Spoilers> I also enjoyed hearing what each character felt important to share with Pew, and what they assumed about them. Very much filling in the gaps the other person leaves with your own experience. 

There's some interesting themes touched on, including how limited our physical bodies are as a means to explain and understand our realities and experiences, the discomfort and quick jump to hostility when someone defies catagorisation, how much of identity is subjective and situational, and the interconnectedness of living creatures.

The ending
was a little bit of a let down for me, as I felt the tension leading up to the festival wasn't paid off as satisfyingly as it could have been, and the very last part was a bit confusing. I assume that the two of them became one of the disappeared like in the next county? But unsure. It went over my head a bit, I think


There's also, obviously, a trans/GNC/queer reading of the book. This is probably why I found it so difficult to refer to the main character as Pew, as it's a name that is given to them without any of their own input.

Overall really liked it. A lot of it is a bit meandering and philosophical, but it's also got wonderful, uncomfortable atmosphere building and some absolutely gorgeous writing. The most passages I've highlighted in a long time.
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ameronie's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

this packs so much, especially a lot of philosophical questions that the text never actually answers. thereby it mostly reflects the reader's morals and ideas around identity, trauma, community, religion, gender, race, forgiveness etc. as the protagonist, pew, is an ambigious figure that does only engage in communication when it's urgently needed. by not being much more than that, pew functions as a disturbance to the day to day norm and therefore needs to be categorised, understood and made to want to assimilate. i'm sure there are plenty of contexts this can be applied to. and as interesting and hugely important as those discussions are, the book didn't add anything new though i enjoyed reading it. the ending felt anticlimatic and confusing, the way racism was explored lazy. also, i'm still not sure how intertwined the story actually is with 'the ones who walk away from omelas'. 
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rainysundaybooks's review

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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renepierre's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A genderless and racially ambiguous child of an unknown age is found sleeping on a church pew. The community take it upon them selves to shelter and discover the mysteries of the child they name “pew”. But Pew won’t speak, and with the Forgiveness Festival approaching, the town start to prepare Pew for its events, as well as start to question the timing of their new arrival. Pew is sent to various people that offer and claim to be able to help them, though staying silent, ends up offering their ear to the people that need to talk. This was a great little story and says a lot about gender and race and our need to categorise and classify each other. The writing was simple yet poetic in its descriptions and consisted of some of the most natural sounding and distinct dialogue between its large cast. 
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