6.02k reviews for:

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.11 AVERAGE

laurentipton's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Loveable characters: No

elvimoon's review

3.5

dark emotional sad slow-paced

apersonallibrary's review

1.0

challenging dark 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: No

sherl0cked's review

3.75

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

nvzmun's review against another edition

4.0

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Been a while since I read a "dystopian" novel and this one certainly did not disappoint. However, I forgot that majority dystopian novels leave unanswered questions up to the reader's imagination/interpretation. Truthfully, I was not in the mood to do either so I kept getting frustrated and waited for something to happen but nothing really happened. The entirety of the novel follows our mc I guess (the mother) as she navigates through war under a tyranny in Ireland and tries to protect her family. Yes, she was trying her best to provide but she wasn't doing ENOUGH for me! Why wasn't she doing more to look for her husband? Contact her sister? And don't even get me started on her father's riddle like dialogues. I guess I kept wanting her to rebel against the government and break all social barriers to find answers like most mc's do but in a way she portrays the average human doing everything they can in their power to survive so I can respect that. Also I thought I would hate the author's writing style but as someone who also often writes with run-on sentences I was quite amused. Also the author does not use quotations but it wasn't difficult to figure out who was speaking? Very much reminded me of Sally Rooney's writing style. (Irish writers unite!)

Now onto the themes, this novel was so eerie similar to many current events happening in the world despite being released in 2023. I mean the world has been shit for years now but this is nothing new? I always find it so comical when someone reads a dystopian novel and asks "can you imagine if this were to happen now?" I mean it's been happening for decades but I guess no one seems to bat an eye until it affects you personally. However, with the recent ICE raids, college campus protests and the government criminalizing the average citizen over free speech (list goes on btw), I couldn't help but draw the stark similarities with the story. It didn't feel like I was reading a fiction novel, it felt like I was reading into someone's life because these things do happen. Many of us are just privileged enough to be not affected by it due to geographical or social luck.

maymay85's review against another edition

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boring and tone deaf

emenendez1's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

rubyjubbbaddiel's review

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

bob91's review

4.0

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

lexynr's review

3.5

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced