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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
I just finished, and I'm honestly shaken. Read the first 90 pages slowly over the last couple weeks, but the final 120 pages flew by today. This book has honestly affected me more deeply than any book that I've read in a while. Highly recommend.
Το βρήκα ανούσιο και βαρετό. Το θέμα που προμοταρεται ως υπόθεση του βιβλιου, εμφανίζεται ουσιαστικά προς το τέλος και παλι χωρίς ιδιαίτερη εμβάθυνση. Δεν ταυτίστηκα ούτε συνδέθηκα με κανέναν από τους χαρακτήρες και στην πραγματικότητα το διαβασα μέχρι τέλους ελπίζοντας να διαψευστώ.
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
fast-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:
Complicated
I read this book as an atheist Asian American woman who played classical piano competitively in childhood and abandoned it right before entering college. Not merely as a career path, but altogether, all at once; and for reasons similar to Phoebe’s. The mirroring of events to my real life experience (minus the family tragedy) was eerie.
There are some things Kwon got right about this - the quasi spiritual loss, the atrophied discipline - and others that I personally find unlikely. A young adult who grew up communing with an instrument for six hours a day is necessarily comfortable with solitude. Also accordingly, she lacks the skill set and personality type to fall into the sort of hedonistic social life that we are meant to believe Phoebe did, at least right away. As such, Phoebe’s character never read entirely real to me - her charisma felt constructed, to create an object of fascination for Will - and that annoyed me.
Upon finishing the book, I find my favourite aspect to be the gradual revelation of exactly how flawed and problematic Will was, how unreliable his narration. The story is ostensibly about a girl joining a cult, and the fact that random women tended to be afraid of the “good guy” narrator was deliciously overlooked for most of it.
I found the prose to be involving at first, then rather irritating, then easier to overlook as the end approached.
There are some things Kwon got right about this - the quasi spiritual loss, the atrophied discipline - and others that I personally find unlikely. A young adult who grew up communing with an instrument for six hours a day is necessarily comfortable with solitude. Also accordingly, she lacks the skill set and personality type to fall into the sort of hedonistic social life that we are meant to believe Phoebe did, at least right away. As such, Phoebe’s character never read entirely real to me - her charisma felt constructed, to create an object of fascination for Will - and that annoyed me.
Upon finishing the book, I find my favourite aspect to be the gradual revelation of exactly how flawed and problematic Will was, how unreliable his narration. The story is ostensibly about a girl joining a cult, and the fact that random women tended to be afraid of the “good guy” narrator was deliciously overlooked for most of it.
I found the prose to be involving at first, then rather irritating, then easier to overlook as the end approached.
With riviring prose, Kwon portrays what it looks like to lose one's faith and what it means to feed the flames of belief. The Incendiaries examines where these disparate journeys intersect, overlap, and the negative space that exists within the cross sections.
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes