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hirvimaki's review against another edition
3.0
Obreht has a gift with words; her sentences are lush and lyrical and beautiful. The careful way she crafts each paragraph shows an uncommon skill with language and from that I derived great enjoyment. But despite the beauty of how the words were strung together, I never found myself compelled to keep reading. Or to pick it up after I had set it aside. As pretty as the words were, the story they told - or tried to tell - lacked focus and interest. The stories within the story were interesting and had a good narrative, but the main story itself seemed to meander and get lost. And by the end I found that I really didn't care. That is not to say that I did not like the book - I liked it and some parts of it I even liked very much - but when I finished it it felt incomplete and I felt vaguely disappointed. I think I would have enjoyed two novelettes - the Tiger's Wife and The Deathless Man - much more than this shell that was wrapped around them about people I never got to know well enough to care about.
juliannegern's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
nerdalert219's review against another edition
I am leaving this unrated because I DNF'd. I was about 2/3 through the book and I was simply not into it. Literary fiction is hard for me to get into. This book was beautifully written and I enjoyed when we were first introduced to the tiger. But ultimately, it simply wasn't for me.
dotty51's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
I feel conflicted about rating this book. The themes and dialogue were expertly woven into the most intricate but also abstract design. I laughed out loud so many times at the loveable and quirky deathless man’s relationship with the grandfather. I was on the edge of my seat, despite the fact that everything was left ambiguous. I found the language describing animals to be unmatched. I loved the way she incorporated minute and often unnecessary details into the story without lamenting. I felt like I was there and then some. Death, animals, war, and relationships were the main themes explored throughout this book. Tea’s writing seemed to aim to explore why people do the things they do within the reflection of the above mentioned themes. I loved deciphering my own meaning from random stories woven into the overarching story of Natalia and her grandfather. Every character down to inanimate objects was done justice. That is every character except the relationship between the wife and the tiger. I hated the ending for that reason. I felt like it had completely deviated from everything I loved about the book. Natalia seemed to reveal that she thought the made up myth about the tiger and his “wife” was real. She laid out a picture of the tiger and the girl’s intimate relationship, despite the fact that previously to this the book painted the villagers as scared and irrational. Painting that poor girl in that way didn’t sit right with me. I would’ve loved it if it the end only described how Natalia thought the tiger processed the “wife’s” death. I felt like her themes would’ve been wrapped up in such a satisfying way while also staying true to the ambiguity. but the part where she was describing the tiger mourning her death felt rushed by comparison to the overly long winded story about why a girl and a tiger fell for eachother and why Natalia thought that the myth actually happened. Grrrr. Anyways I’m still going to read it again and maybe skip the last five pages. I didn’t like 5 out of hundreds of pages of riveting and masterful storytelling, so I’m going to pretend that the book didn’t end with describing a tiger and a dv victim laying together and having a child
katharim's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
underthejunipertree's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
This book only made sense to me at night. For whatever reason, when I read it in the daytime, the words wouldn’t click into place, like I was reading fuzzy words behind the glass. And then the moon would come out, and I’d pick up the book to read something before bedtime, and the book would come into focus and flow, like it did the night before.
The book asks more questions than it answers— but if you can make peace with this, it’s a verdant read, powered by the muscles of its own prose and instinctual sensibilities in a roiling dreamscape of myth and memory. Plot is not a steady thread, but rather, a sharing of confidences when the moment feels right.
lil1inblue's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
missyjohnson's review against another edition
3.0
enjoyed the folk stories that were made a part of this story. I am not sure that I am satisfied with the story of the grandfather being told to completion, but that is just personal preference. I need to learn more about the history of the Baltic area and how the wars there have continued for so long. this book also made me want to visit that area.