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redheadorganist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
This book has depths I will probably never understand. It was often hard to follow. But it was captivating and left me feeling like I'd experienced something beautiful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Minor: Blood
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
So convoluted and dense, and yet I cannot tell you a single concrete meaningful thing about the world, story, or characters. A perfect example of style over substance -- and not even a great style at that, because a million run-ons without a comma in sight (except in splices, i.e. where they're not supposed to be, and god forbid any semicolons or em-dashes) and shallow imagery repeated ad nauseam do not constitute strong, profound writing. Especially when they're surrounded by weak verbs and dry statements; a lot of descriptions start with the classic grammatical expletive "there is/are." If these quirks were only in one section, it might have been fine, but all of the narrators sound virtually identical. Rather than consciously breaking grammatical customs to create some obvious effect or unique voice, then, it reads like unnecessary padding or honest errors.
I can't even comment in depth on the other elements, I feel like, because what little is there gets completely overpowered by the writing. I don't mind purple prose or stylistic experiments, but they need to be supplementing an actually compelling narrative and/or about 70% shorter. Here, though, if you take away the technical frills, you're left with 500 pages' worth of a bunch of scattered concepts that could have been interesting but don't amount to much in execution.
I wasn't super impressed by The Night Circus when I read it either, but I don't remember it being quite this insufferable, so maybe there's some sophomore slump effect going on. Either way, a pretty big disappointment, and irritated me so much at times I would have definitely thrown a physical copy. Honestly, I blame the editor -- if anyone did indeed edit this -- more than Morgenstern, because a good editor might have at least said, "Hey, so if you aren't going to follow a coherent plot or fully flesh out any of your characters, maybe you could at least punctuate your writing so it's readable?" Alas, clearly nothing of the sort happened, and the certain kind of reader I am suffers for it.
I can't even comment in depth on the other elements, I feel like, because what little is there gets completely overpowered by the writing. I don't mind purple prose or stylistic experiments, but they need to be supplementing an actually compelling narrative and/or about 70% shorter. Here, though, if you take away the technical frills, you're left with 500 pages' worth of a bunch of scattered concepts that could have been interesting but don't amount to much in execution.
I wasn't super impressed by The Night Circus when I read it either, but I don't remember it being quite this insufferable, so maybe there's some sophomore slump effect going on. Either way, a pretty big disappointment, and irritated me so much at times I would have definitely thrown a physical copy. Honestly, I blame the editor -- if anyone did indeed edit this -- more than Morgenstern, because a good editor might have at least said, "Hey, so if you aren't going to follow a coherent plot or fully flesh out any of your characters, maybe you could at least punctuate your writing so it's readable?" Alas, clearly nothing of the sort happened, and the certain kind of reader I am suffers for it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, and Gun violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexism
amschelly153's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I really enjoyed the storytelling and world building.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence and Gun violence
sxndaze's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
There’s something about Erin Morgenstern’s writing that makes you feel transported. It holds so much whimsy and magic, and while it can take a while to get into, it really holds onto you. I loved the story within a story within a story format and the idea that everything is connected. I’d like to reread this sometime with either a physical copy or an ebook, but having this be my first proper audiobook was a lovely experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
aloy's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence
yourmaninmotion's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Sexual content
Minor: Suicide, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
blairextraordinaire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol, Torture, Violence, and Abandonment
Minor: Pregnancy and Gun violence
frankiejo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
"This is the rabbit hole. Do you want to know the secret to surviving once you've gone down the rabbit hole?"
Zachary nods and Mirabel leans forward. Her eyes are ringed with gold.
"Be a rabbit," she whispers.
GOD. god i loved this. i think i found my new favourite book.
I'm never going to be able to put all my feelings about this incredible story down, at least not in any meaningful way, all I can do is encourage you to read it.
The prose was breathtaking. I don't think I've ever written down that many quotes (yes I take notes when I'm reading! It's fun) The world that Morgenstern so artfully constructed was beautiful and it hurts my soul that I can't live in it. I have very, very few complaints about this book. As in two. And one of those complaints is just that I think some bits could have used a comma or two to make things clearer, but I;m very overzealous with commas in my own writing so that might just be me. And the other one is that the middle is endless but frankly I don't really care because I loved every minute of it.
Man, I'm always going on to my friends about how much I hate feedback thats just "I loved it" but. Oh my god. I truly cannot think of anything else to say. I've seen this book described as a love letter to stories and the art of storytelling and I wholeheartedly agree. On that note, I do feel I have to say that this is not a casual read. I don't mean that in a derisive way! If you would identify yourself as a casual reader, that is completely fine. All I mean is that this book, in addition to being a love letter to the art of storytelling, is a nonlinear narrative with a lot of moving parts. A lot of different stories are told at once, and not all of them seem especially related to one another until the end. You have to be patient. If nonlinear narratives are a no-go for you, or if you prefer to shut your brain off a little and read to relax, this might not be your cup of tea. Personally, if I was making a list of books you should at least try to read before you die, this would be number one. That's very specific. Anyway, what I'm saying is that while I do suggest giving this a shot, know that it's not a casual fantasy romp. Not that casual fantasy romps are bad, I love them, just that this isn't that. I saw some people saying that they were confused or thrown off by the nature of the narrative, which I found odd at first. I suspect that the people who were confused were unaware of the nonlinear narrative/overlapping stories and so got confused when the story jumped around so much in time, location, and character, which is understandable! Just a heads-up there: 'tis complicated.
I have no idea if any of that made any sense. I feel a little high right now.
A book is made of paper but a story is a tree.
rep; main character of colour (presumably afro-latino, as his mother is described as Haitan), gay main character, various other characters of colour ranging in narrative importance from "very" to "not at all", fairly important character who "hates labels" and is attracted (at least) to men and women, mlm major character
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Grief, Stalking, Violence, and Death
Minor: Blood, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content
That schizophrenia/psychosis is discussed, none of the characters have schizophrenia or experience psychosis, although Zachary does repeatedly question his reality.jelliestars's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
i_llumi's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
considering that I read most of this during two 6h long flights, with one of them having the fantastic background noise of: baby crying a lot, I think this book was…. confusing, but very big brain. it felt like one big metaphor that if I thought about too much it wouldn’t make sense anymore
i quite enjoyed the scattered stories and books, but sometimes they felt a bit too random or irrelevant to the main plotline imo.
im writing this block of text at 4am after said two long flights + excessively long airport lines so needless to say my brain is fried atm
in sum tho
this books is pog + dorian best boy dorian ily
i quite enjoyed the scattered stories and books, but sometimes they felt a bit too random or irrelevant to the main plotline imo.
im writing this block of text at 4am after said two long flights + excessively long airport lines so needless to say my brain is fried atm
in sum tho
this books is pog + dorian best boy dorian ily
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content