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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Couldn’t get into the book, the writing style was too odd for me and the characters all felt half developed and awkward
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic
I wanted so much more from this book. It was a re-telling of The Handmaid’s Tale, only not as good and distinctly less believable. The de-evolution premise had promise, but was scientifically not plausible and was ultimately a distraction. Pick another Erdrich novel for your introduction to this author. 3/5 stars.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The actual experience of reading this book I would give a 4 or maybe 4.5 star experience. I definitely felt myself gripped and interested the whole way through. But when I got to the end, I found myself frustrated with what seemed like a lot of setup and very little payoff. It's not about the plot being left open-ended. I think that's okay. But there were a lot of themes I felt this book wanted me to think about, that weren't really explored to their fullest extent. Themes about identity, like Cedar finding out about her father. Themes about religion and faith and evolutionary biology and what it all has to do with each other. Themes about humanity's culpability in climate change. These things were a part of the book, but I don't know what the book had to say about them.
And on the open-ended-plot front, I did find the lack of catharsis frustrating. Such a large part of the book is taken up with the escape plan, only for her to end up captured at the end, and her ultimate fate is something we don't get to know. Her last meeting with Phil was oddly anticlimactic. She doesn't get to speak to her father again. Everything just felt so... incomplete. I had such a pleasurable experience reading this book, so it was a bummer to get to the end and feel unfulfilled by the novel as a whole.
And on the open-ended-plot front, I did find the lack of catharsis frustrating. Such a large part of the book is taken up with the escape plan, only for her to end up captured at the end, and her ultimate fate is something we don't get to know. Her last meeting with Phil was oddly anticlimactic. She doesn't get to speak to her father again. Everything just felt so... incomplete. I had such a pleasurable experience reading this book, so it was a bummer to get to the end and feel unfulfilled by the novel as a whole.
Read it in a day. Utterly captivating. Same themes as “The Handmaiden’s Tale” but more timely and urgent. And from a non-white gaze.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No