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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
emotional
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
What a gut wrenching work of art. Around 70% of the way through, I decided to start the book over from the beginning, and it really helped tie the story together for me. The time jumps were hard for me to follow, so the second round cleared things up and I got a lot out of it that I missed the first time, as well as followed the final 30% with clarity. I listened to the audiobook while reading for a lot of it and I absolutely loved the narrator, her skill added a lot to the audio version.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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:
Yes
challenging
sad
tense
medium-paced
moth on heart, mosquito on leash, be careful when we say tomorrow
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh my gosh okay so, The God of Small Things was difficult to get into but I ended up loving it. The guys in the book club were definitely mixed on it. Some couldn't get through it. Some people got through it but struggled all the way to the end. Everybody agreed that the first half to 2/3 of the book was difficult. Only some of us thought the payoff was worth it.
The beautiful prose kept me reading early on. Other people were turned off by the writing style and felt it was pretentious.
The story was told in a rather haphazard way, meandering all over the sequence of events and creating a lot of unfinished loops as it went. At a certain point in the book, it started closing those loops one by one, opening up a few more, and slowly closing them all by the end. It's a good candidate for immediate reread because I think you would appreciate the first part of the book so much more with context.
Excellent use of foreshadowing. The book overall reminded me of The Poisonwood Bible. It utilized the same foreshadowing techniques, it had a similar sense of impending tragedy.
The beautiful prose kept me reading early on. Other people were turned off by the writing style and felt it was pretentious.
The story was told in a rather haphazard way, meandering all over the sequence of events and creating a lot of unfinished loops as it went. At a certain point in the book, it started closing those loops one by one, opening up a few more, and slowly closing them all by the end. It's a good candidate for immediate reread because I think you would appreciate the first part of the book so much more with context.
Excellent use of foreshadowing. The book overall reminded me of The Poisonwood Bible. It utilized the same foreshadowing techniques, it had a similar sense of impending tragedy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder
Moderate: Physical abuse
Breathtaking.
“It’s only now, these years later, that Rahel with adult hindsight recognized the sweetness of that gesture. A grown man entertaining three raccoons, treating them like real ladies. Instinctively colluding in the conspiracy of their fiction, taking care not to decimate it with adult carelessness. Or affection
It is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain.
To let it be, to travel with it, as Velutha did, is much the harder thing to do.” (Pg 181)
“It’s only now, these years later, that Rahel with adult hindsight recognized the sweetness of that gesture. A grown man entertaining three raccoons, treating them like real ladies. Instinctively colluding in the conspiracy of their fiction, taking care not to decimate it with adult carelessness. Or affection
It is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain.
To let it be, to travel with it, as Velutha did, is much the harder thing to do.” (Pg 181)
This abridged version is terrible. Skip it. Read the original.
dark
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality
challenging
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes