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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
A well crafted novel about youthful ambition, infatuation, and when the two are taken too far inside a religious prep school. Complex WLW relationships and cult-like friendships.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really, really didn't like the Vogue actress
DNF 14/02/23. I wanted to like this book! I wanted to like this book so much that I made my parents ship it to me after I left it in canada last spring! I cannot stress enough that, as a chorister who constructed her entire personality around francis abernathy at the age of 16, I figured I was precisely the target demographic. so much about it appealed to me, from the insular boarding school setting to the queerness to the waugh-esque tartt-esque novel(ist) at the centre of it all, not to mention the glowing review from melissa febos on the back; but I just...didn't like it. it felt like a hollower secret history, like we were all meant to understand the comparisons, so all the (intentionally or not) similar elements - including setting, plot, tight-knit clique of main characters with esoteric hobby - were sketched out instead of fully inhabited. the prose didn't grab me, the story didn't keep me hooked, the characters' voices didn’t ring true. alas.
Honestly, this was fun. I haven't read a book that I thought was genuinely terrible in so long.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-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
This is trying very hard to be the Secret History but is nowhere close. Virginia is not compelling and it's hard to see what Laura, who is unbelievably naive and spineless, sees in her. The queer stuff is too enmeshed in religious themes/puritanism to be interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Alcohol
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This read like a feverish dark academic dream. Although I found it quite slow, I was drawn into the story of how religion and devotion can be skewed so terribly. It's about how your worldview can be so narrow and the shock and liberation one feels when these views and ideologies are deconstructed. It's a book I'll be thinking about for awhile.
Knocking off a star because it would've been nice to have more character study or background info on the characters.
Knocking off a star because it would've been nice to have more character study or background info on the characters.