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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
i should write something significant for such an insane book but im just sitting here with my chin on my hands staring at my screen because i can't put words together the same way daisy johnson does so why even try?
[22/72 and also the best one so far]
[22/72 and also the best one so far]
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gretel has been looking for her mother for 16 years. In the years they had together, they lived on a boat on a canal and invented words of their own, including one for the thing lurking on the water. As Gretel digs into her past looking for hints of her mother’s whereabouts, she remembers the people whose path she crossed and how they each left their mark on her and her mother’s life.
This dual-timeline novel will probably feel quite different depending on your mood. It is thoughtful and subtle, but also quite bleak because of its description of family relationships. I was expecting a little more whimsy and a lot less queer rep, so I might have been a little frustrated by the down-to-earth approach (although there *is* a presence of folklore), but I was pleasantly surprised by the trans rep, however messy the characters are. It got me thinking that most of the trans rep I’d read before was in fantasy books, and that I haven’t encountered a lot of trans characters in contemporary fiction. That’s mostly because I read more fantasy than contemporary books, but still.
The subtlety of the narrative meant that it took me a few chapters to understand the dual timeline and the relationships between the characters, but that was also a case of my brain being frozen by stress as I read this in the week leading to my trip to Oxford.
This book could be read as a variation on the Oedipus myth, although this aspect is more present in the last third, but I’m sure a more literary-minded reader will find a whole lot of interesting things to say about this novel.
Rep: trans and lesbian rep.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Abandonment
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Suicide attempt
Minor: Cancer, Suicide
Do you ever read a book and think, how can people not read when there’s wonderful stories like this in the world? Yeah, this isn’t that. This is the book people pick up and decide to never read another book in their life. I don’t know what the fuck I just read. I thought I was reading a story about a woman caring for her mother with Alzheimers but instead was sent on some path about a transgender person and a made up language and none of it made a damn bit of sense. None of it felt connected and it was a really boring book that seemed to have no plot line. It somehow has 3.5 stars on StoryGraph and I just don’t understand. It’s listed as magical realism but I think that’s a stretch… but then again, I have no idea what was even going on so maybe that’s exactly what this book was.
I want to clarify on “excitement factor” rating, that it has nothing to do with it being exciting… but rather how engaging the story line is.
Excitement Factor
10 the story allowed me to feel all parts of the story accordingly, from set building, character building moving into the primary conflict of the story with an appropriate build to the climax, and then resulting in a resolution for the characters/set
8 the story felt rushed in either the set building or character building but did have an appropriate build to conflict, climax, and resolution or vis versa
6 the story felt rushed in the set building or character building and struggled to get to the conflict early enough in the story (before the 75% mark), but it did have good resolution
4 the story felt rushed in the set building and character building and rushed to get to the conflict while still having resolution
2 the story felt rushed in the set building, character building, and the conflict while having a rushed resolution
1 DNF/Skimmed to finish
•
| Gut Instinct Rating: | 2
| Characters: | 4
| Believability: | 5
| Uniqueness: | 10
| Writing Style: | 4
| Excitement Factor: | 10
| Story Line: | 10
| Title Relevance: | 10
| Artwork Relevance: | 10
| Audiobook Narration: | 8
| Overall: | 7.30
| Audiobook: | 3.65
| % Audiobook | 73%
Este es el típico libro con el q continuamente te preguntas qué estás leyendo. He llegado a la página 100 de 300 y ha sido entre turbio, pesado y algo pedante.
No merece mi tiempo…
No merece mi tiempo…
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I imagined Marcus as Jack Flanagan, who I had thought was a woman.
Incredible. A fever dream from start to finish, mystical interweaving storylines that drag you downstream.