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challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really psychological, formally challenging, disturbing
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Murder
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dense, often brilliant experimental novel, few better nail the feeling of a couple in isolated freefall and marriage as segmented, autonomous project, one you can only really be on the outside of.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Murder
challenging
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The diaries, photos and film reels of a young woman who has committed suicide and left the couple who she was lodging with looking for answers and exposing the tensions in their marriage and the triangle of relationships suggested by the title. When the diary entries are fragmented, they are at their most interesting, being highly lyrical, chockfull of symbolism and pregnant with meaning. When the entries are more full narratives of the three of them together on the beach or around the house, they are less interesting. The sections of the married couple together are also more conventional and though the bitterness and frustration reeks in these sections, it's not really something you haven't read or seen many times before. Reminded me of a Harold Pinter play in its understated violence.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this one a lot, hesitant to say I love it. The book depicts a few days in the life of a married couple going through the effects of a friend, who ostensibly died of suicide shortly before the book begins. The things they find in their friend's journals, poems, and film reels bring to the surface the turmoil that was bubbling under this marriage's surface. Ann Quin uses tight and terse prose, dialogue laden with hidden meanings, and the stylistic switch between prose and poetry to make the book feel like it's constantly picking up speed while driving towards the conclusion.
Then the conclusion kind of just evaporates. This is one that would definitely reward a second reading. The characters unfold over the course of the book in a way that gives explanation to the way they acted at the beginning of the book, and looking close for what you know is coming likely reveals a lot.
I didn't super connect with what the back of the book describes as an "incisive exploration of the hidden emotions and sexual undercurrents of the British middle class", though the book does depict some truly horrific bedroom politics.