Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Birnam Wood is very unique. It embraces the idea of telling rather than showing, delving deeply into the motivations and experiences of the characters, frequently switching perspectives as it interrogates the lived experiences of politics. At times, this style can be piercingly insightful, and at other times it can be absolutely agonizing: social satire so minute it becomes proto-schizophrenic leftist infighting. The plot of the novel is tightly organized, and the characters are uniformly interesting, with the main antagonist a definite high point. I thought the ending was a weakness of the novel. Birnam wood is built around careful chains of action and consequence, but the ending is abrupt and shocking in a way that feels out of place for the rest of the book.
More than most books, I think this is a subjective one. It's plot-heavy satire with an experimental and unusual style and a heavy emphasis on politics, and you have to know yourself well enough to know if that appeals.
More than most books, I think this is a subjective one. It's plot-heavy satire with an experimental and unusual style and a heavy emphasis on politics, and you have to know yourself well enough to know if that appeals.
I definitely liked it. But for all the excitement I heard about it before, I guess I was a bit underwhelmed.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-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
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
It's just giving me the ick, we keep giving characters backstories and I just don't care
this was awful in that it wasn’t at all pleasant, but it was definitely A Good Book™. the characters are well-written, if annoyingly self-aware, and the plot starts slow but quickly becomes relentless. it made me think of Dostoyevsky with the long social commentary monologues the characters would sometimes embark on (which, again like Dostoyevsky, readers in 200 years will need some serious context clues to understand). interestingly, secular writers (who in this day & age tend to claim humans are fundamentally good) often expose the evil in even the best-intentioned human hearts through books like these. while there are plenty of political explorations, this book is fundamentally about humans - our motives, our foibles, our pride and our struggles; how we interact with those who mistreat us, get in our way, or simply don’t take us seriously. I can’t say I would want to read it again, but I am glad I read it.
wow wow wow! this left me speechless and i will be thinking about it for a long time.