Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

1 review

seventhswan's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This one's for the gifted and mildly traumatised girlies who had a weirdly intense, homoerotic friendship in high school that never went anywhere and fizzled out around the same time that their giftedness did... but in 1950s rural France. Which is a relief, or I might have thought parts of the book were about me. Everything in this story was impeccably constructed and I felt genuinely sad for both Agnes and Fabienne throughout, despite - or perhaps because of - some of their actions being borderline indefensible. I've been loving novels with rural settings lately and this was a huge win on that front too. 

I do wish the novel hadn't opened with
Fabienne's death.
I think it would have been more impactful to not be certain what happened to her until the end of the book. Otherwise, though, I could have read a book twice as long about these characters and their world. 
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