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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
Probably a 3.5 for me. Well written, well thought out, very believable of how someone would feel watching their girlfriend slip into a cult. Try as I might, it didn't really strike a chord with me. I appreciate the length of this book.
While interesting
Plot will not appeal to all
Worst haiku this year
Plot will not appeal to all
Worst haiku this year
I am going to have to come back to this review. CW: rape.
Will and Phoebe meet in college. They both have complicated relationships with their spirituality and religious backgrounds. Phoebe has issues related to the recent death of her mother in a car accident. Will is leaving his faith behind; Phoebe is searching for faith. Will is, maybe, trying to replace his faith with obsessive love and controlling tendencies. Phoebe is fascinated by a charismatic cult leader. This all sounds quite dramatic, but this novel is cool and detached.
And maybe Will is an unreliable narrator? I haven't figured that out yet.
Everything in this book is told through Will's eyes. That makes it interesting when thinking about how other characters are portrayed.
If nothing else, this book is fascinating because of the way it's written and unusual subject matter. I'm going to be thinking about it for a while.
Will and Phoebe meet in college. They both have complicated relationships with their spirituality and religious backgrounds. Phoebe has issues related to the recent death of her mother in a car accident. Will is leaving his faith behind; Phoebe is searching for faith. Will is, maybe, trying to replace his faith with obsessive love and controlling tendencies. Phoebe is fascinated by a charismatic cult leader. This all sounds quite dramatic, but this novel is cool and detached.
And maybe Will is an unreliable narrator? I haven't figured that out yet.
Everything in this book is told through Will's eyes. That makes it interesting when thinking about how other characters are portrayed.
If nothing else, this book is fascinating because of the way it's written and unusual subject matter. I'm going to be thinking about it for a while.
i had a hard time connecting. Phoebe joins a cult where she subjects herself to pain in order to repent, to understand who she is, and to find her place/purpose seem familiar... maybe even universal (except for cult part). However, it was hard to summon the energy to care about the characters or the plot. It wasn't for me.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m seeing all of the reviews of this book taking issue with the writing style, and I want to know: what books are YOU reading? After all of these bestsellers that are painfully bare, at times just poorly written, I’m left craving some real literature, some prose, something with art and thought put into it. This was that for me. After this book, I will never go back to Taylor Jenkins Reid or another fluffy romance except for maybe a break. After this book I finally felt satisfied. Yes, the plot was a little funky, like I didn’t feel any suspense or anything and the ending just kind of… fizzled out, but the writing was beautiful. But seriously, people who want better writing from this book, what books are you reading? I need to know what is outdoing this, because I need to read it. Please, pull me out of this ditch of bad bestsellers and end my good recommendation drought.
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A quick, very interesting character story where the main protagonist and narrator sucks as a person. This story is mostly about a pathological liar and manipulative guy falling in love with a woman at college, who falls in with a religious cult.
Pheobe is, unfortunately, an emotionally vulnerable woman caught between two men trying to manipulate her. Will is a troubled loser who doesn't know how to handle anything authentically, and tries to out manipulate the cult, not realizing that all his behavior is pushing Pheobe right into the arms of the cult.
I think this is an interesting story of how some things do not change.
Pheobe is, unfortunately, an emotionally vulnerable woman caught between two men trying to manipulate her. Will is a troubled loser who doesn't know how to handle anything authentically, and tries to out manipulate the cult, not realizing that all his behavior is pushing Pheobe right into the arms of the cult.
I think this is an interesting story of how some things do not change.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault
This book, narrated by a young man whose college girlfriend may have joined a cult, was transfixing. The language was so specific and haunting. I’m not the first person to say it reminded me a bit of Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History,” mostly from the eeriness of the situation and the outsider voice. The author is doing something very interesting with point of view in the sections led by Phoebe the cult leader John Leal. The book felt fresh and alive.
A couple of key sections aside, I found the writing overly florid and not at all engaging. To be frank, wannabe hedge fund workers and fucked up Jesus freaks (past, present and future) are not my scene at all, and there are only so many times you read an opening para of, "I poured myself a large tumbler..." or "She took a healthy glass of..." before your eyes roll back completely into your head.
Yeah, didn't like it at all.
Yeah, didn't like it at all.
(1.5 stars) Y’all I wanted to like this book. I really did! But it just didn’t do it for me. I thought it was boring, the characters were meh, and it just didn’t reach its potential.
The Incendiaries follows the relationship of Will, a college student hiding his financial struggles and ex-Christian life, and Phoebe, an ex piano prodigy who is struggling with the death of her mother. They met at Edwards University and quickly fell in love.
The whole premise of the plot is that Phoebe falls in line with a cult after meeting a man named John Leal, a former Edwards student and old friend of her father. The chapters about Leal aren’t fleshed out at all, and are super short, giving us very little backstory or explanation as to why this cult he started exists. He just randomly shows up one day with little rhyme or reason, and suddenly had a hold on Phoebe, even though her character is written in a way that would make you think she WOULDN’T fall under his charismatic spell.
Much like Leal, Phoebe’s character isn’t fleshed out and I feel like her character’s potential isn’t reached. Even though Will is the main character in this book, the chapters switch between Will, Phoebe, and Leal’s POV, with Will only having a backstory that is told in full. SO many life-altering, interesting, and tragic things happen to Phoebe and Leal, and they’re only slightly touched upon, leaving me confused as to why their chapters even existed in the first place.
The plot of a religious cult trying to take over a small New York town seems like it would be so interesting and made me so excited to read this book. However that was just a small offshoot - what the book is really about is how the cult changed the dynamic in Will and Phoebe’s relationship, not the inner workings or doings of the cult.
The only reason why I didn’t DNF this book (which I never do but came close to with this book), was because of the writing. Kwon is a gifted writer, and the book was written beautifully. It’s just…what was being written about was wicked boring and not satisfying at all. I’d say to skip this one.
The Incendiaries follows the relationship of Will, a college student hiding his financial struggles and ex-Christian life, and Phoebe, an ex piano prodigy who is struggling with the death of her mother. They met at Edwards University and quickly fell in love.
The whole premise of the plot is that Phoebe falls in line with a cult after meeting a man named John Leal, a former Edwards student and old friend of her father. The chapters about Leal aren’t fleshed out at all, and are super short, giving us very little backstory or explanation as to why this cult he started exists. He just randomly shows up one day with little rhyme or reason, and suddenly had a hold on Phoebe, even though her character is written in a way that would make you think she WOULDN’T fall under his charismatic spell.
Much like Leal, Phoebe’s character isn’t fleshed out and I feel like her character’s potential isn’t reached. Even though Will is the main character in this book, the chapters switch between Will, Phoebe, and Leal’s POV, with Will only having a backstory that is told in full. SO many life-altering, interesting, and tragic things happen to Phoebe and Leal, and they’re only slightly touched upon, leaving me confused as to why their chapters even existed in the first place.
The plot of a religious cult trying to take over a small New York town seems like it would be so interesting and made me so excited to read this book. However that was just a small offshoot - what the book is really about is how the cult changed the dynamic in Will and Phoebe’s relationship, not the inner workings or doings of the cult.
The only reason why I didn’t DNF this book (which I never do but came close to with this book), was because of the writing. Kwon is a gifted writer, and the book was written beautifully. It’s just…what was being written about was wicked boring and not satisfying at all. I’d say to skip this one.