Reviews - Absolution | The StoryGraph

1.53k reviews for:

Absolution

Jeff VanderMeer

3.73 AVERAGE

talentedmisfit's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark tense 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

lavendaara's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

I loved the first two sections but as silly as Lowry’s section was it felt like such a slog. The ending didn’t feel as strong as the beginning, although I loved Cass’s reappearance.

cryptidcorvid's review against another edition

3.0

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hannahcgray's review against another edition

2.0

challenging tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

tucked_snuggly's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense

This is not a good book to read before bed. House centipedes feature prominently early on, and I’m freaked out by these bugs. My nerves got so frayed reading the words “house centipede” over and over that I ended up jumping at every little noise and needing to turn the lights on. Also, there’s an image of a house centipede at the beginning and end of the edition I read, which I cannot approve less of. There are other reasons to avoid this novel before bedtime, but that one’s especially potent to me.
In the edition I read, there’s an abstract photograph at the beginning of each section, which I found to be a fresh way to set a creepy mood.
In every SR novel before this one, there’re hardly any characters that trust one another—so much so that people distrusting one another is basically a hallmark of the series. Therefore, it’s notable how much Old Jim really ends up trusting “Cass,” regardless of how much she trusts him (

although I think she does trust him, based on how she seems to come back for him on Lowry’s expedition. [Not that the expedition is really Lowry’s—it’s just his section]

). I really liked Old Jim as an addition to the SR cast of characters,

and he makes a great unreliable narrator, as so many SR narrators do

.
I don’t think I understand what was going on with the Rogue.

Was he Whitby? That’s the feeling I got after Lowry ate Not Whitby’s husk, but I don’t know.

Lowry’s “fuck” tic got old quick and made his whole section kinda drag. On the flip side of that, though, that he pathologically cannot say some swear words (I’m thinking about “blinches”) is very funny.
Usually the author’s acknowledgments aren’t very interesting to read (if you’re not being thanked), but I found them interesting here for their specificity. It’s interesting to see that various ideas and moments in the story had their origins in interactions with certain people, and to see which elements VanderMeer looked to others for help with. It’s also interesting to glean a bit of VanderMeer’s writing process through it, like seeing how he used a real bar to figure out what Jim would need to do in order to run the Village Bar. It’s not often I end up thinking about the acknowledgments this much, but these ones are just that good.
Overall, this feels like a good way to leave off the SR series. Absolution fits in well with the rest; it’s got that strange psychological/environmental/bureaucratic horror that I’ve come to crave. But how will I sate my appetite now? Woe is me, it’s all over.