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bamugo's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
kslone's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it forever: Shirley Jackson is my girl. The Bird’s Nest is one of her lesser-known novels, which is a shame. It’s criminally underrated and under read.
Having undertaken a comprehensive SJ deep dive over the past three months or so, I think TBN is Jackson’s most straightforward novel. To me, her hallmark literary style is in telling a story by what is not being said. There are whole plots that take place within the subtext. Certainly you’ll find that in TBN, but for the most part, there is a clear (by SJ standards) resolution at the end.
All in all, truly excellent. This is a top three SJ novel for me. Five stars.
Having undertaken a comprehensive SJ deep dive over the past three months or so, I think TBN is Jackson’s most straightforward novel. To me, her hallmark literary style is in telling a story by what is not being said. There are whole plots that take place within the subtext. Certainly you’ll find that in TBN, but for the most part, there is a clear (by SJ standards) resolution at the end.
All in all, truly excellent. This is a top three SJ novel for me. Five stars.
caseyjayner's review against another edition
slow-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
emikemichan's review against another edition
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
3.75
eustachio's review
4.0
Arriva un punto, quando il piano è di leggere tutto quello che un autore o un’autrice ha scritto, in cui ti rendi conto di aver già trovato il tuo libro preferito. Con un anno di ritardo mi accorgo che per me il libro in questione è The Sundial.
The Bird’s Nest resta comunque il bellissimo ritratto di ragazza schizofrenica nella cornice familiare a cui Shirley Jackson ci ha abituato: una grande casa, personaggi antipatici, un oscuro passato. Non mi stancherò mai di leggerla.
The Bird’s Nest resta comunque il bellissimo ritratto di ragazza schizofrenica nella cornice familiare a cui Shirley Jackson ci ha abituato: una grande casa, personaggi antipatici, un oscuro passato. Non mi stancherò mai di leggerla.
drjonty's review
4.0
Divided self
Shirley Jackson is wonderful at this blend of the comic and the insane. There is also here a very real sense of warmth and love. It is a book about multiple personality which itself has multiple personalities.
Shirley Jackson is wonderful at this blend of the comic and the insane. There is also here a very real sense of warmth and love. It is a book about multiple personality which itself has multiple personalities.
jediknightjoey3's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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? Yes
3.75
The psychological approach to Elizabeth’s character was fascinating enough to keep me interested, but I feel like the novel was lacking in other particular areas. A lot of back and forth, I feel. Shirley Jackson’s writing was very much the best part of the book.
jason_h's review against another edition
4.0
Oops, it took me 3 months to finish this book. Not the books fault. Started out stronger than it finished but I still really enjoyed it.
jduffy1026's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 4.5
After recently being chewed up, swallowed, and spit back out by Shirley Jackson's Hangsaman (in the best way possible, that is), I have been searching for more of her wildly-unsettling psychological narratives, and, The Bird's Nest delivered. This story, like the former, pulled me in immediately and still won't let me rest even after finishing it.
The story follows protagonist Elizabeth Richmond, a 23-year-old woman with a tendency to neatly hang her coat and hat upon entering a space and do little more than that once there. A (very literal) shift occurs in her mundane routine, and soon Elizabeth finds herself a becoming a different person (or four), resisting the urge to throw herself down cellars, sleepwalking with no recollection, and blacking out during social events only to wonder what she could have said to offend everyone so gravely, all within the first chapter.
From here, Jackson masterfully takes her authorial voice for a trip among multiple unique perspectives, four of which reside within the protagonist herself. Each subsequent chapter follows a different perspective on the protagonist's plight with dissociative identity disorder, jarring amnesia, delusions, and imaginings that feel supernatural at times. I've heard it said that Jackson's strength lies in her purposeful ambiguity, leaving readers with more questions than answers and allowing you to fill in the creepy details for yourself, and while I think that Hangsaman perfected this and remains my favorite of her works, The Bird's Nest definitely follows suit for fans looking for more of this.
In particular, Chapter 3 may be some of my favorite of Jackson's writing, as she pulls you through a first-person, near stream-of-consciousness, unreliable narration that creates eerie experience like no other novelist I've encountered.
This is part three of my current Shirley Jackson reign-of-terror, and I have to say she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
After recently being chewed up, swallowed, and spit back out by Shirley Jackson's Hangsaman (in the best way possible, that is), I have been searching for more of her wildly-unsettling psychological narratives, and, The Bird's Nest delivered. This story, like the former, pulled me in immediately and still won't let me rest even after finishing it.
The story follows protagonist Elizabeth Richmond, a 23-year-old woman with a tendency to neatly hang her coat and hat upon entering a space and do little more than that once there. A (very literal) shift occurs in her mundane routine, and soon Elizabeth finds herself a becoming a different person (or four), resisting the urge to throw herself down cellars, sleepwalking with no recollection, and blacking out during social events only to wonder what she could have said to offend everyone so gravely, all within the first chapter.
From here, Jackson masterfully takes her authorial voice for a trip among multiple unique perspectives, four of which reside within the protagonist herself. Each subsequent chapter follows a different perspective on the protagonist's plight with dissociative identity disorder, jarring amnesia, delusions, and imaginings that feel supernatural at times. I've heard it said that Jackson's strength lies in her purposeful ambiguity, leaving readers with more questions than answers and allowing you to fill in the creepy details for yourself, and while I think that Hangsaman perfected this and remains my favorite of her works, The Bird's Nest definitely follows suit for fans looking for more of this.
In particular, Chapter 3 may be some of my favorite of Jackson's writing, as she pulls you through a first-person, near stream-of-consciousness, unreliable narration that creates eerie experience like no other novelist I've encountered.
This is part three of my current Shirley Jackson reign-of-terror, and I have to say she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
1dfan666's review against another edition
5.0
i want to pace myself when i read shirley jackson; she's only got so many novels and i fear the day when i have nothing new of hers to explore. but she doesn't write anything that's easy to set down! i think i liked this even better than We Have Always Lived in the Castle. she is simply a master of putting the reader directly inside of whatever strangeness she's cooking. i have many Thoughts on this one but nothing that's easily accessible yet. a masterpiece, is all i can say presently.