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spacewormreads's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
stormmorgan's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
vonni's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
If you're like me and enjoy a pastoral, alpine, mystery book with luscious descriptions and haunting tones, this book is a must read. It's a bit slow to start, but the intrigue of the setting kept me engaged and I am so thankful that I stuck around for the whole novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Abandonment, Grief, Rape, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, and Medical content
Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Infertility, Animal death, Bullying, and Pregnancy
meemawreads's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
"A mother was a chance to hate someone as much as you loved them, caring and wounding, a push and pull that only tightened the knot that bound you."
I'm gonna be haunted by this one for a long time. We learn of a dystopian mountain town where mothers disappear. We follow Vera through childhood where her own mother Goes, then adulthood. This is detailed, character-deep writing, beautifully composed, a love letter to mothers and daughters. It gives exposition in a way that reminds me of Never Let Me Go. Good read for those who like answering their own questions about a story instead of having it spoon fed. Probably a hard read for those with mother/child trauma. This one GOT ME, GAL. Five taters 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
I'm gonna be haunted by this one for a long time. We learn of a dystopian mountain town where mothers disappear. We follow Vera through childhood where her own mother Goes, then adulthood. This is detailed, character-deep writing, beautifully composed, a love letter to mothers and daughters. It gives exposition in a way that reminds me of Never Let Me Go. Good read for those who like answering their own questions about a story instead of having it spoon fed. Probably a hard read for those with mother/child trauma. This one GOT ME, GAL. Five taters 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
serendipitysbooks's review
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Elsewhere is set high up in the mountains, in a village isolated from the rest of society except for a single trader who visits regularly. Apart from its location and isolation the other thing that sets this village apart is that periodically, without warning, some mothers simply disappear into the clouds, never to return. At the centre of this novel is Vera. We first meet her as a young girl whose own mother has disappeared and then follow her through her teen years until she marries and eventually has a daughter of her own. I liked the fairytale like setting and atmosphere and thought the story was a clever way of exploring motherhood, the pressures mothers face and the pressures they place on themselves, the way they are judged by society, the parts of themselves that they lose when they have a child. I loved the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship and they nuanced way they were portrayed via Vera’s relationship with her mother and then with her daughter Iris. Children’s memories, what and how they remember is another important issue examined via the story. What this story doesn’t do is wrap up neatly or answer every question the reader may have. I felt that was a smart move since it amplifies the disconcerted feeling that the storyline creates.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, and Sexual assault
cowboykid's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury
xjuliaaaaaax's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
This book had me crying when I finished it. If you enjoyed the Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, i think you’d like this (and vice versa).
For me this book was about the way parents and children never seem to understand one another, and the bittersweet love that is still strong between them.
The narrative has a circularity to it, which I enjoyed.
<spoilers>
I like that the clouds and the disappearances are never fully explained. It’s not clear if all the women who vanish truly fake their dissolution and just left, or if some really do vanish. And how the clouds seem to be a metaphor for the toxicity of motherhood, how everyone including mothers is constantly monitoring their behavior, and looking for signs. The mothers always find a reason for a vanishing, if they didn’t, it been mean there is no reason and it would be too frightening. But since they create reasons, there’s theoretically some way to avoid the dissolution, which only a good mother is capable of. The pressure of this toxicity leads our main character to leave her child before she disappears so she can at least exist in the same world with her. Only after doing so and returning does she see her life with new eyes. The town she thought was so beautiful, the food so good, was only like that because she’d known nothing else, and she now knows mothers don’t have to disappear, but choose to because they’re afraid of being bad mothers. They’d rather be absent than bad. The town however loves its martyrs, reveres them even as it forgets them entirely. And the town has to forget, because it would be too painful for them to acknowledge the abandonment and their part in it.
In our protagonist we see the full cycle, her joyful and naive childhood; seeking understanding from the stranger-her mother; rejecting her mother who she cannot understand and therefore cannot possibly understand her/them; becoming a mother herself and experiencing both love and fear of this status; leaving the child out of that love-fear; returning and deeply understanding the child but being rejected for the knowledge she has that the child cannot imagine; wondering if her own child will learn the truth as she becomes a mother.
It’s truly heartbreaking, the physical distance representing the emotional distance that can occur even between a mother and child living together in the same house. </spoilers>
For me this book was about the way parents and children never seem to understand one another, and the bittersweet love that is still strong between them.
The narrative has a circularity to it, which I enjoyed.
<spoilers>
I like that the clouds and the disappearances are never fully explained. It’s not clear if all the women who vanish truly fake their dissolution and just left, or if some really do vanish. And how the clouds seem to be a metaphor for the toxicity of motherhood, how everyone including mothers is constantly monitoring their behavior, and looking for signs. The mothers always find a reason for a vanishing, if they didn’t, it been mean there is no reason and it would be too frightening. But since they create reasons, there’s theoretically some way to avoid the dissolution, which only a good mother is capable of. The pressure of this toxicity leads our main character to leave her child before she disappears so she can at least exist in the same world with her. Only after doing so and returning does she see her life with new eyes. The town she thought was so beautiful, the food so good, was only like that because she’d known nothing else, and she now knows mothers don’t have to disappear, but choose to because they’re afraid of being bad mothers. They’d rather be absent than bad. The town however loves its martyrs, reveres them even as it forgets them entirely. And the town has to forget, because it would be too painful for them to acknowledge the abandonment and their part in it.
In our protagonist we see the full cycle, her joyful and naive childhood; seeking understanding from the stranger-her mother; rejecting her mother who she cannot understand and therefore cannot possibly understand her/them; becoming a mother herself and experiencing both love and fear of this status; leaving the child out of that love-fear; returning and deeply understanding the child but being rejected for the knowledge she has that the child cannot imagine; wondering if her own child will learn the truth as she becomes a mother.
It’s truly heartbreaking, the physical distance representing the emotional distance that can occur even between a mother and child living together in the same house. </spoilers>
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
muddymind's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
This is an odd little book. It seemed like everything was happening all at once but at the same time nothing happened really at all. I found this book to have prevalent themes of generational trauma, the sacrifices of motherhood, the complexities of home & love. There’s a limited cast of characters but I don’t feel particularly close to any of them although I can sympathize with some. Overall I enjoyed this novel but I don’t think it was detailed enough towards the ending. The last chapter felt rushed & I still have a lot of questions, maybe that’s by design & we aren’t supposed to be provided all the answers but I’m left feeling puzzled.
It’s a beautiful book & it’s certainly interesting. I would like to read it again & see if I view it differently the second time around.
It’s a beautiful book & it’s certainly interesting. I would like to read it again & see if I view it differently the second time around.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Minor: Violence
sarah984's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
No idea what the point of all that was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Sexual assault
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit
Minor: Child abuse, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, Bullying, Infertility, Medical content, and Child death
readwithmemd's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was absolutely gut-wrenching, and I loved it.
In a isolated town where specifically mothers are disappearing, the women of the town try to find a pattern to these vanishings. Cue the judgement from others, and themselves, regarding these women's abilities to care for their children. Why are some mothers going and others not? What were those missing mothers doing wrong? Reading through the conversations that the mothers left in town were having was painful, if not for how real it is. It fascinated me how these women, who were also mothers, could so easily lend judgement to others knowing how hard motherhood is themselves. But they needed something to point to in order to make themselves feel safer, to feel like they wouldn't vanish because they didn't do the same thing.
In reality, all of these mothers loved their children deeply, and it was that love the made the possibility of disappearing so terrifying.
When Vera, the main character, goes on her journey.. oh my goodness. I cried actual tears for her. Her return was heartbreaking, and when you realize what is happening and how it compares to events of the past, it was such an emotional experience.
Schaitkin's writing was exceptional and really transported you into the setting of the story. Her words were almost lyrical, poetic. They really added to the emotional investment I had in the story.
Read this if you want to cry. I recommend looking up TW/CW ahead of time, as well.
In a isolated town where specifically mothers are disappearing, the women of the town try to find a pattern to these vanishings. Cue the judgement from others, and themselves, regarding these women's abilities to care for their children. Why are some mothers going and others not? What were those missing mothers doing wrong? Reading through the conversations that the mothers left in town were having was painful, if not for how real it is. It fascinated me how these women, who were also mothers, could so easily lend judgement to others knowing how hard motherhood is themselves. But they needed something to point to in order to make themselves feel safer, to feel like they wouldn't vanish because they didn't do the same thing.
In reality, all of these mothers loved their children deeply, and it was that love the made the possibility of disappearing so terrifying.
When Vera, the main character, goes on her journey.. oh my goodness. I cried actual tears for her. Her return was heartbreaking, and when you realize what is happening and how it compares to events of the past, it was such an emotional experience.
Schaitkin's writing was exceptional and really transported you into the setting of the story. Her words were almost lyrical, poetic. They really added to the emotional investment I had in the story.
Read this if you want to cry. I recommend looking up TW/CW ahead of time, as well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, and Grief