Reviews

The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

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catvotovich's review

5.0

The movie didn’t even come close to the novel. This was such an amazing thriller and the film fell so short.

Wonderful to me, a hothouse tale gorgeously interested in women. Precise and energetic dialogue (made me want to read his plays), fierce ethical quandaries that never once push it into a morality tale, fucking vivid characters, a remarkable pace for a story about a bunch of people in a house (can't remember a time I enjoyed rotating narrators more), and an uneasiness different than the kind I expected--and all the better for it. Glad Sofia Coppola adapted it because it's exactly the kind of thing that begs to be adapted by her. Love how quickly the reader knows what McBurney is, and how that actually complicates matters instead of settling them. Just a remarkably capable book.

elisabethbeck's review

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dark tense 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

4.75

The levels of girlbossery are unmatched. The OG 'as she should.' Little Women on gothic crack. He gaslight, they girlbossed. They were girls together.

P.S (I watched Sofia Coppal's '17 adaptation before reading and I don't understand why she absolutely massacred Cullinan's characters and in some cases completey omitted them. The OG source material is near perfection.)

grierkelsey's review

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2.0

I was very excited about this book. The cover promises suspense and horror, the premise is intriguing, and the first 100 or so pages are full of prose that I couldn’t get enough of. However, the book sort of sours after that. The suspense and horror doesn’t come in until about page 350, 20 or so pages until the end of the book. The rest of the book is just an uninteresting man playing young, inexperienced girls and naive women for his own personal gratification with no real motive other than sexual. I found the male adversary as compelling as wet bread, and the female characters, while very intriguing, disappointingly preoccupied with the wet bread and their interesting histories and secrets barely explored. Would have given 3 stars, but my disappointed expectations knocked one off.