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sungyena's review
reflective
medium-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
casskrug's review against another edition
3.0
hmmm unfortunately i’m having a tough time figuring out if i enjoyed this book or not. the positive here for me was that smith’s writing style is delightful. the way she plays with language here is begging to be read aloud, so that you can fully grasp the double meanings of her puns - the same quality pulled me into her work at the beginning of 2022 when i read autumn for the first time. this quote from the last section of the novel perfectly encapsulates how i feel about smith’s wordplay:
“Brooke looked up from her piece of paper and watched them throwing the words for birds and flowers and Hollywood actors at each other like they were throwing little rocks wrapped as presents.”
i think the stumbling block for me is with the specific stories she tells and the overarching themes within them. often while reading this book, i felt like there was something just beyond my grasp, like there were dots i should’ve been connecting but was not. i believe we have a lot of the same viewpoints on the political and social themes that tend to pop up in her work, but they’re usually couched in undercurrents of british politics and humor that don’t fully resonate with me, personally, as a reader. i enjoyed the different personalities of the main narrators and the connections she weaved between them, but got lost within the larger cast of characters that this book has. i didn’t feel particularly compelled to find out what happened next because i wasn’t particularly attached to the characters or the storyline of miles locking himself in the lee’s spare bedroom during their dinner party.
ali smith is obviously a very talented writer but i’m not sure if she’s the writer for me, or maybe i’m just not the reader for her.
“Brooke looked up from her piece of paper and watched them throwing the words for birds and flowers and Hollywood actors at each other like they were throwing little rocks wrapped as presents.”
i think the stumbling block for me is with the specific stories she tells and the overarching themes within them. often while reading this book, i felt like there was something just beyond my grasp, like there were dots i should’ve been connecting but was not. i believe we have a lot of the same viewpoints on the political and social themes that tend to pop up in her work, but they’re usually couched in undercurrents of british politics and humor that don’t fully resonate with me, personally, as a reader. i enjoyed the different personalities of the main narrators and the connections she weaved between them, but got lost within the larger cast of characters that this book has. i didn’t feel particularly compelled to find out what happened next because i wasn’t particularly attached to the characters or the storyline of miles locking himself in the lee’s spare bedroom during their dinner party.
ali smith is obviously a very talented writer but i’m not sure if she’s the writer for me, or maybe i’m just not the reader for her.
pacific_spiny_lumpsucker's review against another edition
WHY WAS HE IN THE ROOM WHY TELL ME WHY
hanniluise's review against another edition
4.0
all of my questions were answered and at the same time none of my questions were answered
meepsharrison's review
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
saracox's review
1.0
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I.Don't like the face there are no speech marks. And strangely I would describe it as a bit wordy. There are unanswered questions and a lot i just didn't get, random facts and sentences.
lemon_y's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
luvrunr's review against another edition
3.0
The book was wonderfully written. I loved the way the words flowed and how they made me think. I also enjoyed that the book contained some words I didn't know and had to look up. I was not extremely pleased with how the book ended but I still enjoyed it.
philippakmoore's review
3.0
I was initially intrigued by the plot: a friend of a friend brings a stranger to a dinner party. Halfway through, this stranger goes upstairs to the spare room, locks the door and won't come out. No one knows why, and months pass with him still in there and no one any the wiser. It made me think a little of The Slap - an incident at a social gathering that then has reverberations in the lives of every person who was present.
There but for the isn't quite like that though. It doesn't follow any linear conventions. There were parts of the novel that were truly compelling, others fell very short because, to be honest, I couldn't make a lot of sense of them. Particularly the third part of the novel - "for" - that seemed very irrelevant to the rest of the story and I found it very difficult to follow and to place within the context of what had gone before.
The novel is a tangle of language, thought and experience - at times this works very well, at others it is just confusing. I am obviously one of those readers that early reviewers predicted would find the novel a bit frustrating! A bit more linear narrative structure would have made this novel work a bit better for me. But perhaps that was the point, to discomfort. I gave it three stars rather than two because it was somewhere between being ok and liking it. The parts I liked I liked very much.
There but for the isn't quite like that though. It doesn't follow any linear conventions. There were parts of the novel that were truly compelling, others fell very short because, to be honest, I couldn't make a lot of sense of them. Particularly the third part of the novel - "for" - that seemed very irrelevant to the rest of the story and I found it very difficult to follow and to place within the context of what had gone before.
The novel is a tangle of language, thought and experience - at times this works very well, at others it is just confusing. I am obviously one of those readers that early reviewers predicted would find the novel a bit frustrating! A bit more linear narrative structure would have made this novel work a bit better for me. But perhaps that was the point, to discomfort. I gave it three stars rather than two because it was somewhere between being ok and liking it. The parts I liked I liked very much.