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gentle_garbage_baby's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Excellent read - very emotional and sad in some parts. The characters are written in a way that is very believable. Would recommend for people who enjoy books about the lives of people and families rather than action-packed books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Sexual content, Gun violence, Violence, and Misogyny
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, and Grief
Mentions some events regarding the Troubles in Ireland.jersy's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I was hoping for something in the vein of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and this kinda managed to scratch that itch but as a more literary version with a more old-fashioned philosophy in the narration and some side tangents. The actual story of the actress, Katherine O´Dell, was absolutely fascinating and exactly what I was looking for, both as a fictional biography and as a character study, but while her daughter Nora was an important part of that, telling the story and adding to it as a central character of Katherine´s life, I didn’t care for the parts that were purely about her. I found it hard to relate to her world view and some of the lines were just incredible pretentious, which was made easier to endure due to the audio book narration by the author herself, which was marvelous and made that stuff almost feel natural. The real problem, however, is that Nora´s bigger parts are mostly unrelated side tangents and at one point 1h of the audio book was just dedicated to Nora not really reacting to The Troubles and describing her future husband in a way that made me dislike him.
Apart from these segments, I really enjoyed the book. The characters were both really easy to picture and clouded in mystery at the same time. They seemed like memorable personalities and the way they were described made me feel transported back in time. The story isn’t always told chronologically, which worked great to create suspense and felt like you were really in Nora´s head as she remembers it.
I just think Enright could have gone even deeper into the relationship of Nora and Katherine. There is definitely something there, especially regarding how Nora viewed her mother, but it seemed quite complex and going deeper into that would have been worth more than the present-day segments.
It´s definitely easier to recommend this to people who read a lot of literary fiction and memoirs than to fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid and straight-forwards story-focused novels.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Gun violence, and Alcoholism
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