Reviews

Lanny by Max Porter

elean0rtaylor's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

katyab's review against another edition

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4.0

Good grief. That was warming, fantastical, dark, eerie, horrifying and heart-wrenching. Both loved this and was frightened by it. There was one part that straight-up disturbed me (not sure how necessary it was), but the rest of it was wonderful and so dreamlike.
I’ve never been so fascinated by a fantasy/god/spirit character as I was by Dead Papa Toothwort. Big chunk of inspiration here: thanks Max!

arose93's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

veronicascarsi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

_blue_moon_'s review against another edition

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2.0

Some brilliant concepts but the unfortunate habit of relying on them as gimmicks. Seems to be rated highly by people who don't read much fantasy, where this wouldn't make as much of a ripple. Good bones but not as original as it believes itself to be.

repobi's review against another edition

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3.0

Weird, but pleasant.

melissabraine's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5**

twtoppings's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I loved the poetic prose. I've read a few books now, that do dialogue differently, and this book does a great job.

suvata's review against another edition

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5.0

TBR since January 23, 2019

#StoryGraph: fiction fantasy magical realism dark emotional tense medium-paced
160 pages | first published 2019

If you enjoy reading Neil Gaiman or you liked Lincoln in the Bardo, I think you will like this book. Max Porter has a very unique, poetic voice . The settings is small village outside London where the trees and the land tell tales of the past. In the present lives Lanny; a young, unique, artistic boy who has gone missing. This book is as ethereal and mystical as Porter‘s first book, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers.

Description

Longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize

An entrancing new novel by the author of the prizewinning Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

There's a village an hour from London. It's no different from many others today: one pub, one church, redbrick cottages, some public housing, and a few larger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs. This village belongs to the people who live in it, to the land and to the land's past.

It also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, a mythical figure local schoolchildren used to draw as green and leafy, choked by tendrils growing out of his mouth, who awakens after a glorious nap. He is listening to this twenty-first-century village, to its symphony of talk: drunken confessions, gossip traded on the street corner, fretful conversations in living rooms. He is listening, intently, for a mischievous, ethereal boy whose parents have recently made the village their home. Lanny.

With Lanny, Max Porter extends the potent and magical space he created in Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. This brilliant novel will ensorcell readers with its anarchic energy, with its bewitching tapestry of fabulism and domestic drama. Lanny is a ringing defense of creativity, spirit, and the generative forces that often seem under assault in the contemporary world, and it solidifies Porter's reputation as one of the most daring and sensitive writers of his generation.

ckshaw13's review against another edition

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

3.0