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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
6/5 if I could
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
im a bit torn on this one. the book doesn’t have much plot structure so sometimes it felt like it was just writing for vibes but there were also quotes that made me have to stop for a second and stare at the wall. short read
I realize now while I was playing these silent movies of the life after our life, you were still there. You were sitting with me, the two of us alone in the theater, still together. This sadness is not an empty church and not an empty house. It is the whole world and I am in it and it is in me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Body horror, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury
okay i HATED the story, BUT LOVED the grief filled visceral flashbacks. i did not know our main character was a zombie going into this, i just knew it would be about life & death, and the time in between the two. and while the plot was honestly terrible (for me), the detailed paragraphs on love and loss were perfect. i would recommend this to fans of Bunny by Mona Awad and those who identify as fucking weird. alas, i’ve included some of my favorite passages below. I URGE YOU TO READ THEM. ⬇️
“I am asleep with you in the dunes. Not asleep, but not awake in the usual way. Not asleep in the usual way. Asleep but only for a few seconds at a time. Only long enough to have a feeling of waking again and again, but still with my eyes closed. Aware again, newly aware, and again, of the sound of the ocean.
My ankles are crossed and you are using my thigh as a pillow. I can feel the weight of your head right now. A gull passes between us and the sun. Its shadow crosses our bodies. I can feel that fleeting coldness right now. We hold things in our bodies.
Because we are so small together in the vast expanse, so small together in the lee of the dune, beneath the sky, within the sound of the ocean and the warmth of the sun, we are more together than we have ever been or ever will be again. This is the very best moment we will ever share. It is a better end than beginning.”
“I close my eyes and try to breathe but the end of the world is in my throat. The summer before the last summer. You are saying something about your brother or mine. I can hear you clearly but it is also as if you are far away. It is unbearable to look back from the future we did not know we had been traveling toward. That is not right. It is unbearable because we did know. It was plain as our own palms.”
“I continue west. I know you will not be there in the dunes. Except that I will be there. I will be there and through me you will be there. I think, if I am in the place where we were together, then we are together again.”
“I am asleep with you in the dunes. Not asleep, but not awake in the usual way. Not asleep in the usual way. Asleep but only for a few seconds at a time. Only long enough to have a feeling of waking again and again, but still with my eyes closed. Aware again, newly aware, and again, of the sound of the ocean.
My ankles are crossed and you are using my thigh as a pillow. I can feel the weight of your head right now. A gull passes between us and the sun. Its shadow crosses our bodies. I can feel that fleeting coldness right now. We hold things in our bodies.
Because we are so small together in the vast expanse, so small together in the lee of the dune, beneath the sky, within the sound of the ocean and the warmth of the sun, we are more together than we have ever been or ever will be again. This is the very best moment we will ever share. It is a better end than beginning.”
“I close my eyes and try to breathe but the end of the world is in my throat. The summer before the last summer. You are saying something about your brother or mine. I can hear you clearly but it is also as if you are far away. It is unbearable to look back from the future we did not know we had been traveling toward. That is not right. It is unbearable because we did know. It was plain as our own palms.”
“I continue west. I know you will not be there in the dunes. Except that I will be there. I will be there and through me you will be there. I think, if I am in the place where we were together, then we are together again.”
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I normally hate zombies but loved this book!
The story is set post-zombie apocalypse in the mind of a zombie separated from her lover. A fever dream that reads like a journal, it works through being human, touches on morality and encompasses the gnawing way grief eats you alive.
“The space between me and me is you.”
The story is set post-zombie apocalypse in the mind of a zombie separated from her lover. A fever dream that reads like a journal, it works through being human, touches on morality and encompasses the gnawing way grief eats you alive.
“The space between me and me is you.”
I was drawn to this book on a philosophical level. Death is a part of life. Thinking this story was of the next stage of your existence, life after death. I had no clue until well into the story that the protagonist was living in the limbo between life and death. De Marcken cleverly takes you through the grief of the protagonist, who no longer remembers her name, or those she loved. You are drawn into her grief as she wanders through this limbo with broken memories of her life. De Marcken really taps into the idea that in life, you are your memories, and if in death you no longer remember., then are you still you anymore?
I liked the prose in the first half, the premise seemed really cool, then it just got too much towards the end. I lost the plot in the second half, and I couldn’t decipher what the story meant for the message.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix