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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
medium-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
A horrifying novella about an Austrian housewife who stares out the window watching a helpless baby bird slowly die while reflecting on her similar inaction in the face of her husband's abuse of the teenage daughter of one of her friends who stayed with them for almost a year. Part of me liked that there was no real motivation or excuse for the narrator's failure to intervene, especially since the author is an Austrian woman who was herself a young housewife during World War II. We want to believe that people had good reasons for not intervening during the Holocaust. But the reality is, like the narrator of the book, many people only care about keeping up the pretenses of their own lives. While an interesting premise for a novel, I found I couldn't connect to any of the characters or fully engage with the story because it was all so detached.
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
Very dysfunctional people leading dysfunctional lives. The intensity of this short novella just over 80 pages cannot be overstated. I’m unsure how I feel about it, but its certainly left a mark.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced