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blairmahoney's review against another edition
5.0
Deserved Man Booker International winner as far as I'm concerned. Powerful and uncanny and emotionally wrenching.
ellekiriel's review against another edition
I know this is supposed to be really good but I was just so bored and the husband as a narrator is horrid even despite knowing he’s an unreliable narrator.
ashleyconnor's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
2.0
Very open-ended in a way that doesn’t do it any favors. Definitely a dark little novel with an interesting premise, but it wasn’t particularly satisfying or moving for me.
chitraa's review against another edition
3.0
"In-hye recalled how Yeong-hye had looked when she’d been standing on her hands. Had Yeong-hye mistaken the hospital’s concrete floor for the soft earth of the woods? Had her body metamorphosed into a sturdy trunk, with white roots sprouting from her hands and clutching the black soil? Had her legs stretched high up into the air while her arms extended all the way down to the earth’s very core, her back stretched taut to support this two-pronged spurt of growth? As the sun’s rays soaked down through Yeong-hye’s body, had the water that was saturating the soil been drawn up through her cells, eventually to bloom from her crotch as flowers? "
Reading this felt like i was floating between the patches of thoughts and inward reality of the characters. I'm not sure if i get it completely but this book feels like it's written not to be understood but to be witnessed.
Reading this felt like i was floating between the patches of thoughts and inward reality of the characters. I'm not sure if i get it completely but this book feels like it's written not to be understood but to be witnessed.
rhyvir's review against another edition
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
2.0
Unbelievably boring. I didn’t find the prose that interesting nor beautiful - it just seemed at times like she was trying too hard to be profound but fell flat. The three perspectives didn’t feel cohesive, and frustratingly enough it lacked the perspective from the person supposedly suffering from mental illness - that felt problematic.
helena14's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
annie_arya's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Blood, Body horror, Self harm, Bullying, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Emotional abuse
ng0pandaa's review against another edition
3.0
I’m still not 100% sure how to process this book yet. The beginning pulled me in just enough that I read the majority of it in a sitting. There was a lot that confused me, and I still have a lot of questions, but I didn’t hate it.