Reviews

Secret Passages in a Hillside Town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

you's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious relaxing sad fast-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? No

4.5

mcabajpai's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

iuihpgan's review

mysterious tense

4.0

ems747's review

1.0

I'm sad I have to mark a Finnish novel so low... :( But the story was way too complicated for me and didn't make sense at all. (Or was that the point?)

magneticcrow's review

I’m again thinking and thinking about it and not positive how I feel, but I enjoyed it a great deal more than Rabbit back literary society and feel like it was overall a much stronger book, with pleasingly unresolved mysteries but a more cohesive plot. 

Ultimately I would like to hear how intersex trans folks feel about the representation, though it was incredibly refreshing to see a trans woman character so glowingly described and loved and accepted by a cishet male love interest.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Outing, Transphobia, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

kaarna's review against another edition

3.0

Tää oli hyvä ja piti otteessaan alun hitauden jälkeen. Aika lumoavia yksityiskohtia. Myös raakaa väkivaltaa, et jos aiot lukee niin kysy tarkemmat trigger warningit, mut ne kyl spoilaa.
Sukupuolen käsittely oli... jännää. En osaa viel sanoo. Pitää ehkä sittenkin ottaa tää graduaineistoon, ainakin yhteen analyysikohtaan mainita.
Ois ollu neljän tähden kirja, jos oisin pysyny mukana paikkakuvauksissa, jos alku ei ois tylsistyttäny ja jos sukupuolen käsittely ei ois niin... emt, tarkoitusperäistä.

calypte's review against another edition

4.0

Like The Rabbit Back Literature Society I loved the quirky, murky, whimsical but nasty tone. The mystery kept me intrigued, even when I guessed the part that gets revealed about the 75% mark, leaving more twists to come. However, there was something just a little... not quite misogynistic, but a bit icky about some of the writing that left me a little uncomfortable, briefly. Which is a shame, because otherwise there was a lot to like here.

As ever, full review is up on my blog.

tiinasusanna's review against another edition

1.0

toinen tämän kirjailijan teos vahvisti käsitystäni, en pidä hänen kirjoitus tyylistään lainkaan.

Tapa kuljettaa tarinaa on puuduttava ja tekotaiteellinen.
Vaikea kuvitella tilanneta jossa suosittelisin luettavaksi

falchionm's review

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ninetalevixen's review against another edition

3.0

(I received a free eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.)

Not quite sure how I feel about this one. It’s aesthetically — cinematically, at least in my mind’s theater — striking, but at times almost self-indulgent (Olli ogling every woman close to him, for example, and particularly his dreams and the secret passageway scenes). The main plot didn’t really come in until halfway through, and the idyllic summer scenes didn’t seem relevant to the plot until then.

Spoiler

I’m not really educated on the issues that intersex individuals face, so I’ll be the first to say I’m not in a position to comment on whether this novel is more helpful or harmful in terms of representation. My inclination, though, is to at least give credit for incorporating a real but frequently overlooked situation that people face.

(Also there are some formatting errors, though of course that’s not as important as the story itself.)