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milliebrierley's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Abortion, and Suicide
sophee_568's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Absolutely unhinged. This is an amalgamation of Catch the Rabbit (Bastašić), and Animal (Taddeo). Lack of quatation marks for dialogue à la Sally Rooney. Heartbreaking, haunting and riveting. A difficult read which filled me with dread but I could not put it down. This book tackles the trauma of going through a civil war, and how escaping the past does not grant a recovery. I may be biased with my star rating because I am from Bosnia, where some of the plot takes place.
I underlined a lot of the quotes.
I underlined a lot of the quotes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Death, Dementia, Mental illness, and Vomit
Minor: Xenophobia and War
lydia123's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was such a hidden gem. Anya is a woman who escaped Sarajevo to the UK and she goes through life feeling alienated and traumatised. She’s on a physical journey and an emotional one. I really relate to the feelings of having your life defined by something, and then for the rest of your life feeling difficult to relate to. This Book is very deep and worthwhile to traumatised people. If you’ve had a happy and easy life so far you might not get this.
Also such gorgeous prose:
“ She was the kind of mother who refused to knock. A fan of borders but not boundaries.”
“I was reading into things again. This was simply absence. Absence with an absence of meaning.”
“I remember being set on happy-ever-after. It amuses me now, how I thought about it as a physical place at the end of a long road. A place where I could unpack, lie down and never have to move again, and the future became an ending.”
Gorgeous!!!
Also such gorgeous prose:
“ She was the kind of mother who refused to knock. A fan of borders but not boundaries.”
“I was reading into things again. This was simply absence. Absence with an absence of meaning.”
“I remember being set on happy-ever-after. It amuses me now, how I thought about it as a physical place at the end of a long road. A place where I could unpack, lie down and never have to move again, and the future became an ending.”
Gorgeous!!!
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Grief, Genocide, War, Dementia, and Abortion
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