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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
In an effort to clean up my TBR, despite having no recollection of where I’d even heard of this book, I gave it a try. Lit fic is not my usual genre and the long winded style of this was a bit tough to get into at first, but the characterizations really hooked me. The first ~270 pages are very little plot and a whole lot of inner monologues, which could be massively boring to some but IMO did such a thorough job of creating these people. On paper they have admirable goals but in reality are all seriously flawed, insecure, and wildly self-absorbed. They feel SO real and also awful. Meanwhile, the plot itself is very slow with a rapid crescendo at the very end. The ending was not satisfying from a plot perspective but it was poignant. Glad I read it!
I suppose it’s not fair to take a star away simply because this novel didn’t do what I’d started to hope it would do when I was about 50 pages in: give us the inside of a Musk/Grimes family epic. However, what it did do was pretty extraordinary. It’s a three-part, three-genre suspense. I’ll admit that the first part was by far my favorite. It provided such powerful insights into contemporary human psychological experiences in a way that felt so effortless and endearing. It had seamless free indirect speech inflected with charming, didactic platitudes: Mira could not understand “the difference between running towards something, and running away” (17). Post part one, the book simply got too plotty for me. Nonetheless, absolutely a thrilling read from start to finish.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
ughhh the edings so rushed and imso pissed off and the starts boring but still 5⭐️
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Maybe I'll write a full review of this sometime, but damn this book just fucked me up. Eleanor Catton is a genius and this novel is absolutely haunting. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated