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bookish_bry's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This is a hard, hard read. It's only about 300 pages, but it's so dense (which I've come to expect from Faulkner). The narrative structure is very interesting and I like that there is a lot of ambiguity about what really happened to these people who are mostly all dead during or by the end of the story. It also gives a very complicated view of the south during the just pre to post-civil war. Most of the characters aren't good people, some of them are very bad people, but they all seem to be people. Honestly, the last paragraph of the novel bumped up the rating by 1/4 point because it really drove home the point of the novel in a way I didn't really see upon the first read until that point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Classism
Moderate: Pedophilia and Fire/Fire injury