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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
I don't know why I keep insisting on reading LIsa Taddeo, as fluent as her style can be (and I didn't say I particularly like it) her stories are so distant from me, I feel like I'm reading some crazy stuff and hardly such distance from the protagonists serves to make me appreciate the story. I'm sorry, this is clearly just my personal opinion and furthermore I also have to admit that I hardly like stories or short stories as they may be, so the author was already at a disadvantage.
Non saprei perché continuo ad insistere nel leggere LIsa Taddeo, per quanto il suo stile possa essere scorrevole (e non ho detto che mi piaccia particolarmente) le sue storie sono cosí distanti da me, che mi sembra di leggere delle cose folli e difficilmente tanta distanza dai protagonisti serve a farmi apprezzare la storia. Mi dispiace, questo é chiaramente solo un mio parere personale e inoltre devo anche ammettere che le storie o i racconti che dir si voglia, difficilmente mi piacciono me i romanzi, quindi l'autrice partiva giá svantaggiata.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Non saprei perché continuo ad insistere nel leggere LIsa Taddeo, per quanto il suo stile possa essere scorrevole (e non ho detto che mi piaccia particolarmente) le sue storie sono cosí distanti da me, che mi sembra di leggere delle cose folli e difficilmente tanta distanza dai protagonisti serve a farmi apprezzare la storia. Mi dispiace, questo é chiaramente solo un mio parere personale e inoltre devo anche ammettere che le storie o i racconti che dir si voglia, difficilmente mi piacciono me i romanzi, quindi l'autrice partiva giá svantaggiata.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This writer hates women with a burning passion, and the central focus of this collection of short stories is reducing women down to petty, cruel, men-obsessed monoliths regardless of their age, race, sexuality, or sociopolitical position.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship
This was heartbreakingly beautiful but also found it hard to really get the full effect I wish every little story had been longer. Also some problematic shit said by these ladies about love and bodies and sexuality idk. No one was memorable
This book is masterful. Lisa Taddeo is a brilliant writer & these stories bring her same unique, raw voice. The characters are written exquisitely & the stories are surprising in both their tension & their simple but tidy endings. Lisa Taddeo is the kind of writer that makes me want to work harder at my own craft because every word she chooses is perfection. No one describes a character as well as her.
The stories were kind of sad, which I'm not mad about and such great writing, but my mind wandered a few times.
The language and the details in this were top notch, but I am comfortable to admit that I am sometimes not the most worldly and that a lot of this book I think went over my head.
It had some very beautiful quotes but was just so boring and I couldn’t get into it
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not for me. My first issue with Ghost Lover is the way the description of the book implies much more of a magical realism tone than the reality. The titular story in essence contains no actual content regarding this “ghost lover” service but instead is a story of a middle aged woman pining after a man who doesn’t want her, and that might as well be a summary of all the stories in this book. I can’t say any of the stories really stood out, because they all felt like slight reworks of the same concept, over and over and over again. I think perhaps I could forgive some of this if it felt like any of these stories had compelling characters, interesting reflection, or stellar writing but they all felt like the same bleh stories of women who hate themselves or their bodies, love men who don’t even like them, and hate the women who do have those men, sprinkled with the most out of the blue bits of fat phobia, ableism, and haphazard and careless depictions of mental health. These sensitive topics were thrown in with no consideration or reflection, which continues to lend itself to either being a book for depressed privileged selfish straight older white women with no aim to grow and instead only commiserate that other women and people are living free and happy lives and relationships, or such poor writing it can’t create a narrative of anything different. Waste of time in my opinion.
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
impossible to finish. got through most stories, but they dragged on. All of them are slow and sad and dark. Not for me.