3.93 AVERAGE

luizakechyan's profile picture

luizakechyan's review

5.0
emotional reflective sad tense
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

trasgu's review

3.5
inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was so disturbing and maddening - but, in a good way?

No, I don't think I can say 'in a good way' about any of this book. Much of the reading was painful.
Being stranded in a rest house in the middle of the desert (fully provisioned and staffed with at least a few) may not sound so painful, but Joan was stranded without anything to read beyond the first day. That circumstance alone chilled me to the core.

Her self-reflection - even though I am not her, and I believe I am nothing like her - was intensely painful, for several reasons. One being her absolute obtuseness, another being her endless judgments, and still another being - good God, is she ever going to see things for what they are??

An then, of course, there is the question - but - am I, in certain ways, just like her?

Not a fun book to read. But really, a very good one.

sofipinho's profile picture

sofipinho's review

4.0
inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gabbia0427's review

4.5
emotional reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A

怎能把把婚姻寫得如此神秘驚悚⋯⋯神作⋯!阿嘉莎太會寫可恨之人的獨白⋯⋯結尾有夠鋒利,尾韻十足。

是說小時候沒感覺,長大後才發現阿嘉莎好多書都在叫人不要結婚

joczerw's review

5.0
challenging mysterious reflective 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

teegs's review

4.0

Be ready to get really introspective with this book. It was so intensely emotional and the ending just about broke me.
hashtag_alison's profile picture

hashtag_alison's review

5.0

I really enjoyed this book, maybe because I read it at a time in my life when it wasn’t too fun inside my own head. And now, with a little distance, it’s interesting to be able to identify people like this in my own life - people that are so loud because they’re terrified of what the silence will unveil in their own head. That is to say, despite the details being things I cannot at all connect with, the book has an emotional truth to it that I have both experienced and seen time after time in others. And those abstract, unfamiliar details are for me a fascinating peak into British upperclass life that has always fascinated me, probably because I started reading Christie’s books at such a young age.

It’s a great book because it would make a terrible movie - the whole thing happens over a few hundred yards and in the main character’s own mind. But not in a Guy In Your MFA kind of way, it’s good.

a8bhatia's review

3.0

I wasn't sure about this book when I picked it up, but I quite enjoyed it despite finding the main character to be annoying. It is a book that will have you reflecting about your own life.

p147 "It had been quite easy to fill her life with unimportant trivialities that left her no time for self-knowledge"

Yes it sure is. To keep busy. To leave no time for wandering thoughts. To be so close to recognizing reality only to shake ones head of the unhappy thoughts and continue on as before.