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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I just found this to be underwhelming. A couple of good stories but a generally weak collection, many of them were just far too similar, all of the characters felt the same and I feel like overall the Fen was neglected and other than a few sentences this could’ve been set just about anywhere. Mind numbingly heterosexual.
Since it's a collection of short stories you'd think I would read the whole lot and walk away with faves and dislikes.. but no. I couldn't even get half way through. I appreciated the strangeness of the fist story but after that I found them repetitive and a little bland.
This is a tricky one. Really 3.5 heading to a 4 star. I’d read more of hers and had listened to Hotel, via BBC, which I loved and drew me to this book. I found it hit and miss, some tales I loved others left me confused and unengaged. I’m not overly keen on having to reread paragraphs to make sense of them and that happened frequently, but when her style worked it was really unusual, inventive. Overall I enjoyed and she is an exciting new voice.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fen is a darkly, twisted short story collection which lead me downs all sorts of weird paths. This is a strange one to review because it’s such a tale of two halves. I liked the first half of the stories a lot, but it fell off so much for me in the second half of the collection. After the first half of the stories, I didn’t feel myself wanting to pick this up and continue it. But I like Johnson’s writing style a lot and her commitment to the strangest concepts that can be mustered. A lot of it is bloody funny and bizarre which I like about it. Yes, a good one until about the halfway mark.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
slow, dark and malign these tales creep under your skin and make their homes there.
the fens are such an incredible setting (although perhaps im biased) and Johnson perfects the weird, liminal vibes of this inbetween place.
i think the stories could have done with more horror for me just to ensure their impact but the ideas executed are vibrant and creepy. short story collections can often vary in quality greatly and although i obviously had favourites i thought the quality was very consistent.
my favourite story was probably language but the themes of sexuality, women and fens were captivating throughout.
the fens are such an incredible setting (although perhaps im biased) and Johnson perfects the weird, liminal vibes of this inbetween place.
i think the stories could have done with more horror for me just to ensure their impact but the ideas executed are vibrant and creepy. short story collections can often vary in quality greatly and although i obviously had favourites i thought the quality was very consistent.
my favourite story was probably language but the themes of sexuality, women and fens were captivating throughout.
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Though the writing itself is great, and there are some amazing ideas (which I wish were explored in more depth) it seems that every story ended up being very similar with the large majority focused on sex. Seems quite pretentious.