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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I wanted to love this book. The potential to love this book was there. But I didn’t love it. I barely liked it. Winkler, the protagonist, is the most infuriating person ever. His inaction throughout the novel causes everyone, himself included, tremendous amounts of pain. The rest of the characters allow this, attributing it perhaps to his eccentric nature or his personality. For the first hundred pages, nothing much happens and then the book picks up but overall, the book is about not doing anything. The intensely detailed description of ice crystals and different types of bugs was overdone and made for chunks of the text that were incredibly boring. There are bright spots of beautiful prose that prevented this book from being a 1 star but ultimately the beauty of the writing couldn’t save the story. I loved All the Light and had high hopes for this book but they went unrealized.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship
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