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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was such a weirdly paced book. Over half of it was very slow exposition and then it really sped up very quickly. I would have liked the ending to have been drawn out and the exposition to have been shorter. It would have been easier to read if there were breaks or new chapters when it switched between character perspectives. A new paragraph would start when it changed perspective, but it was hard to follow. I’ve also never seen such run on sentences (sometimes a full page!). The only reason this book isn’t less stars is because I was intrigued by the concept and was hooked in the last 100 pages.
Just, so impressive. A page turner character study eco thriller meditation on consequence and the end of the world. This book brains.
Reading other reviews I realize I approached this in the right way: I had no real idea what this was about but, knowing her previous novel (which is quite long) won the Booker, thought this would be somewhat literary. Those expecting an eco-thriller—which it is technically marketed as in some spaces, so that's valid—seem disappointed because while it has that going on it is nowhere near as "thrilling" as a normal thriller reader would expect. Instead it's a slow character study with buildup to a situation you're SURE won't go too far until you think...maybe it will. The characters have a lot of debates about politics and ethics that I found interesting but someone looking for a thrill might find dull. I really liked this one and I have to tip my cap to Catton...I usually HATE no chapter breaks and it didn't bother me in the slightest here.
what happens when an anarchic/gorilla gardening collective, a rogue idealistic aspiring journalist, and an American billionaire become intertwined in rural New Zealand in 2017 - nothing good. Birnam Wood made a lot of “best of 2023” lists lasts year, including the New York Times Book Reviews 100 Notable Books and it does not disappoint. It is also a page turner and the characters are well developed and unreliable. Though it is extremely readable, it is a heavy book and explores the most urgent issues concerns facing humanity by shedding light on conspiracies that seem to becoming more likely. Some of you might recognize the name Birnam Wood from Macbeth, a wood in central Scotland- which is not a coincidence. There are many themes in Catton’s latest novel and a lot of them are pulled from Macbeth that have become very relevant around politics today and one that I grapple with is the extreme vilifying of those who do not agree with us, or our adversaries and seeing them as the ones who need to change and the unwillingness to change ourselves. In an interview, Catton discusses another the theme that appear in Macbeth such as the “a way of diagnosing other people rather than diagnosing ourselves … a function of the fact that Macbeth is a play about blindness and about being blindsided by a certainty that you thought that you held that of course turns out not to be a certainty at all- such as the certainty that forests don’t move.” Maybe you are the problem. The influence of Macbeth is very subtle and you definitely do not need to read Macbeth in order to enjoy the novel. I have never read Macbeth, I have always strongly disliked reading Shakespeare, I do read the summaries on the internet and unfortunately for me, a great deal of his/hers/their work (pick the pronoun that matches the conspiracy you believe in) will always be relevant.
https://rosenbergnaomi.substack.com
https://rosenbergnaomi.substack.com