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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
I won this book in a Goodreads First reads Contest.
Such a strange but compelling read. A bit "fever dreamish" with the changing perspectives and fragments of those perspectives. Not a book for people who expect a straightforward story but one that people who enjoy the whole following a tale of people who get wrapped up in a cult. I enjoyed it.
Such a strange but compelling read. A bit "fever dreamish" with the changing perspectives and fragments of those perspectives. Not a book for people who expect a straightforward story but one that people who enjoy the whole following a tale of people who get wrapped up in a cult. I enjoyed it.
First of all, I have to say how much I admire R.O. Kwon's writing style. The style and structure of this book is—as one blurbist puts it—strange, but it it has a haunting effect that fits with the story. It's unlike anything I've read lately. The story itself has an interesting premise (a college girl gets swept up in a cult) and moves swiftly (also it's barely more than 200 pages, so this is a quick read). The Will sections especially grabbed me, but I wasn't drawn in as much by the Phoebe and John Leal chapters. And though I know the author purposely mostly gave us Phoebe through Will's eyes—and I think purposely keeps her a bit at arm's length—I wish that she were a bit more fleshed out.
This book chronicles the life of a young woman and her descent into a cult. The cult was on the fringes of an established religion giving it credence it did not deserve. The charismatic cult leader is only half explained, only half revealed like his chapters have not been written yet. Most of the narration is given by a long time boyfriend of the girl, and perhaps he is the antihero. We are left unfinished by the story and its lack of finite conclusion. I liked this book, but I wish the author had spent more time ob the cult leader and some of the other supporting characters and less time on the boyfriend.
I'm not sure if I really enjoyed this book or not. It felt terrifyingly relative to the world we live in, but I also had a hard time paying attention to it.
A bleak disaster that you want to shut out but can’t bring yourself to look away despite knowing the end
I can’t say I liked any of the characters and I didn’t really understand their motivations but I was compelled to keep reading to find out what happened.
Startling at times, cutting most of the time, and deeply uncomfortable all of the time. Don't be fooled by Kwon's lulling poetic prose or the book's stuttering beginnings: The Incendiaries is a provocative glimpse into faith lost and restored through violence and peace simultaneously. A hard book to read and a harder book to explain. I highly recommend it.
I keep seeing this on best books lists, but I did not get it. I really feel like I missed something this novel was trying to do. Will is a poor former Evangelical who transfers to a fancy east coast liberal arts college. There he meets Phoebe, a Korean American woman who excels at making friends and connections. There’s an intense romance and eventually drifting apart and some upsetting behavior and a cult. But all that later stuff doesn’t occur like I expected. Anyway, the writing was good, but the book never came together for me.