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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
I found this author on a thread that was asking, “are there any good Zoomer authors?” This book was pretty good, but also Marieke Lucas Rijneveld is not really a proper Zoomer (b. 1991).
The Discomfort of Evening is a novel about Jas, a young girl (10-12 y.o.) growing up in a devout (Reformed?) dairy farming household. The main event in her young life is the death of her older brother, Matthies, and the chaos it wreaks on her and the rest of her family.
The other central characters are Mum, her highly religious, totally despairing, aloof, cold mother; Dad, her religious, raging, serious, aloof, cold father (who does at times show some love to his children but ultimately comes across as more concerned with God and his cattle); Obbe, her sadistic, semi psychopathic, disturbed (other) older brother; and Hannah, her younger sister with whom Jas hatches the imaginary “Plan” to escape the dairy farm and get rescued by stronger, gentler men. Other characters are the vet/doctor (who has a creepy flirtatious thing with the young Jas), Jas’s schoolfriend Belle, and some toads Jas keeps in her room to try to make mate (displaced concern for her parents).
Matthies goes out skating one day, falls through the ice, and drowns. Basically this death destroys this family—who interpret it varyingly as a plague sent by God as punishment for their sins and as a random act of cruel chaos—both worlds inner and outer. Jas refuses to take off her overcoat, can’t poo, and leaves a metal pushpin stuck in her stomach at all times. Mum stops eating, becomes totally withholding from Dad and her children, and talks of wanting to die. Dad engrosses himself in his farming, screams scripture at anyone, and grows distant from Mum and his children. Obbe kills and tortures animals, sexually abuses his younger siblings, drinks and smokes, and self-harms. Hanna is a little less of a character mostly because she is so young, but also forms plans to run away, etc.
Some metaphors are easy to read: Obbe names a hamster after Matthies (Tiesie), then sticks it underwater until it drowns. Obvious. Later a virulent disease spreads among the towns’ cattle and the entire herd is put down—plagues and death abound. Obbe forces Jas to sacrifice Dad’s favorite cockerel, like literally murder it with an axe, to keep the parents alive. In retrospect maybe these metaphors of destruction are a little easy, but they are all believable and varying degrees of moving.
One other thing about this book that I will mention is that the cruelty and disgust variables are very high. Obbe is a monster, sexually abusing his siblings, forcing them to watch him kill animals, forcing them to kill animals themselves. The descriptions of this scabbing pushpin in Jas’s stomach made me queasy. Dad sticking his soap-covered finger in Jas’s butt to make her poo was awful. I guess the potency of the feelings they invoked was impressive, but still, hard to read.
I don’t know if I have any big summarizing thoughts on this. It was a pretty good description of naive (childhood) grief and pain, questioning faith in God and parents. There was not a ton of vertical development, mostly it was horizontal. I guess I usually prefer the former.
The Discomfort of Evening is a novel about Jas, a young girl (10-12 y.o.) growing up in a devout (Reformed?) dairy farming household. The main event in her young life is the death of her older brother, Matthies, and the chaos it wreaks on her and the rest of her family.
The other central characters are Mum, her highly religious, totally despairing, aloof, cold mother; Dad, her religious, raging, serious, aloof, cold father (who does at times show some love to his children but ultimately comes across as more concerned with God and his cattle); Obbe, her sadistic, semi psychopathic, disturbed (other) older brother; and Hannah, her younger sister with whom Jas hatches the imaginary “Plan” to escape the dairy farm and get rescued by stronger, gentler men. Other characters are the vet/doctor (who has a creepy flirtatious thing with the young Jas), Jas’s schoolfriend Belle, and some toads Jas keeps in her room to try to make mate (displaced concern for her parents).
Matthies goes out skating one day, falls through the ice, and drowns. Basically this death destroys this family—who interpret it varyingly as a plague sent by God as punishment for their sins and as a random act of cruel chaos—both worlds inner and outer. Jas refuses to take off her overcoat, can’t poo, and leaves a metal pushpin stuck in her stomach at all times. Mum stops eating, becomes totally withholding from Dad and her children, and talks of wanting to die. Dad engrosses himself in his farming, screams scripture at anyone, and grows distant from Mum and his children. Obbe kills and tortures animals, sexually abuses his younger siblings, drinks and smokes, and self-harms. Hanna is a little less of a character mostly because she is so young, but also forms plans to run away, etc.
Some metaphors are easy to read: Obbe names a hamster after Matthies (Tiesie), then sticks it underwater until it drowns. Obvious. Later a virulent disease spreads among the towns’ cattle and the entire herd is put down—plagues and death abound. Obbe forces Jas to sacrifice Dad’s favorite cockerel, like literally murder it with an axe, to keep the parents alive. In retrospect maybe these metaphors of destruction are a little easy, but they are all believable and varying degrees of moving.
One other thing about this book that I will mention is that the cruelty and disgust variables are very high. Obbe is a monster, sexually abusing his siblings, forcing them to watch him kill animals, forcing them to kill animals themselves. The descriptions of this scabbing pushpin in Jas’s stomach made me queasy. Dad sticking his soap-covered finger in Jas’s butt to make her poo was awful. I guess the potency of the feelings they invoked was impressive, but still, hard to read.
I don’t know if I have any big summarizing thoughts on this. It was a pretty good description of naive (childhood) grief and pain, questioning faith in God and parents. There was not a ton of vertical development, mostly it was horizontal. I guess I usually prefer the former.
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Please be warned that this book contains many triggers and do not have a trigger warning at the beginning. While I knew I was about to read a dark novel, I had no idea how dark it was. Books of that nature must always have a trigger warning list at the beginning.
Some of the disturbing topics that are explored in this book are, grief, animal abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, suicide attempt, severe parental neglect, self harm and anti-semitism. Although, these are the ones that I remember and made note of, there are probably much more triggering topics. Please make a thorough research before getting into this book.
What I didn't mostly like about the writing is how repetitive the chapters are. At least four or five chapters could easily be erased and the story would not lose anything. As someone who enjoys reading character-driven stories, this book painfully lacks plot and the character development is very weak. The ending, although it doesn't need to be a surprise, is very much predictable and it drags towards the end. You know what's to come, and yet the author makes the process unnecessarily long.
I have felt like everything could have told much quicker. So, in my opinion this book should have been a short story or a novella.
One last point is that the way some feelings of the protagonist are told in an exaggerated language which is almost emo-like. Those bits were very cringe-worthy to read.
Some of the disturbing topics that are explored in this book are, grief, animal abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, suicide attempt, severe parental neglect, self harm and anti-semitism. Although, these are the ones that I remember and made note of, there are probably much more triggering topics. Please make a thorough research before getting into this book.
What I didn't mostly like about the writing is how repetitive the chapters are. At least four or five chapters could easily be erased and the story would not lose anything. As someone who enjoys reading character-driven stories, this book painfully lacks plot and the character development is very weak. The ending, although it doesn't need to be a surprise, is very much predictable and it drags towards the end. You know what's to come, and yet the author makes the process unnecessarily long.
I have felt like everything could have told much quicker. So, in my opinion this book should have been a short story or a novella.
One last point is that the way some feelings of the protagonist are told in an exaggerated language which is almost emo-like. Those bits were very cringe-worthy to read.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Excrement, Grief
Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief
challenging
dark
emotional
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
dark
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
مُظلمة، تشعر بشبح الموت فيها يجثم على صدرك كما هو جاثمٌ على بيت العائلة حتّى النهاية.. رحلة في أفكار الطفلة "ياس" التي فُجِعَت بموتٍ لم تفهمه، واصفةً السُّبُل المُختلفة التي اختارها أفراد عائلتها للتعامل مع ذاك الموت، غير أنّ أحدهم لم يختر مواجهته.
أبهرني السرد حينًا وأثار نفوري حينًا آخر، وأفجعتني النهاية.. لكنّي لم أكُن أتوقّع غيرها، كما لم أندم على قراءتها.
أبهرني السرد حينًا وأثار نفوري حينًا آخر، وأفجعتني النهاية.. لكنّي لم أكُن أتوقّع غيرها، كما لم أندم على قراءتها.