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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-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:
Yes
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Slow, immersive, and mostly very satisfying, although On the whole, however, a spellbinding and complicated read. The kind of book where deducing the twists in the tale ahead of time is just part of the satisfaction of seeing your suspicions borne out, and filling in the context.
... in fact, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about when I get frustrated with mysteries and thrillers where the answer is "the murder(s) happened because, shock! this normal/sympathetic-seeming character is secretly a sociopathic puppet master." Complex, often very troubling, relatable or at least quite believable motivations all mixed together to cause tragedy and confusion. So much more interesting.
Spoiler
I was somewhat frustrated by the lack of reckoning for Nora's years and years of gaslighting and manipulating in the end, especially from Jess's perspective. She never really fully seemed to grasp that her grandmother had deliberately pushed her and her mother apart, isolating her so that she could essentially be "all Nora's," like her mother had been before she found the strength to move, in stages, out of her mother's clutches. It's also unclear how Nora's possessive, controlling attitude differed between her daughter and granddaughter; while her desperate grip on Polly makes sense in the context of her history, there's little sense why she let Jess move to England, away from her, so easily. She essentially kept Polly down, emphasizing the narrative of her as "fragile" and "anxious," and then built Jess up, so that even at the end she credits her grandmother for giving her the tools and confidence to go out into the world and make a life for herself, even if it had hit a bit of a tangled patch just before the start of the book. Jess begins to realize on her own that her mother had needed to escape the life where she was defined by Nora, and that her "abandonment" of Jess wasn't quite that simple, but the extent to which it was deliberately orchestrated, which is revealed to the reader through Polly's perspective, is still kept from her. It didn't feel like a deliberate story choice so much as something missing.... in fact, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about when I get frustrated with mysteries and thrillers where the answer is "the murder(s) happened because, shock! this normal/sympathetic-seeming character is secretly a sociopathic puppet master." Complex, often very troubling, relatable or at least quite believable motivations all mixed together to cause tragedy and confusion. So much more interesting.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No