Reviews with content warning for Infertility - The Odyssey

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Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

heather_harrison's review

dark reflective slow-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

1.0

Never have I been so mad I didn’t DNF a book, as I have finishing this.

Was lured in with promises of a cult leader aboard a cruise ship; dark, surreal satire, humour and a stunning book cover.

Instead a wholly unlikeable set of characters, bizarre sets of events, and very little explanation.

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veelaughtland's review

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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froggybooks's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

UGH THIS BOOK <333

it was such a weird little book. cultish, late stage capitalism (a cult in itself), unlovable/unreliable/unstable MC. incredible.

mainly vibes over plot but still it was an amazing little book.

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ecn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I have absolutely no idea what to say about this book other than it feels like a fever dream??? I cannot tell you a single thing that happened or what it meant.

I can’t say it was as hard of a “merciless takedown of late capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests for something to believe in” as the synopsis made it seem it would be but it definitely speaks to late capitalism. So much of the book felt like a blurred vision of our capitalist while dissociating through life. However, I do not know what to feel about the book. I wanted so much more out of it than I got. I wanted to know more about everyone and wanted a more grounded story. I genuinely cannot tell what happened this story and if anything was real or a grotesque and exaggerated imagination of the MC.

It’s not for everyone but definitely for you if you want something loosely glossy and reads like a fever dream you have while working at your shit job.

All I can say for sure is I don’t know.

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litlifewithmeg's review

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3.0

This was truly the most bizarre thing I’ve ever read, and I think it’s really ambiguous. The inside cover says this is a “merciless takedown of late capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests for something to believe in.” I can see that, but I also had this feeling of none of it actually happening, and it just showing what this V troubled woman thought was happening. I don’t know.

A lot of this read as ICK to me, and for some reason I kept thinking of A Requiem for a Dream (yikes). It just gave me the same feeling of unease. I wouldn’t say I liked this book, but I was definitely invested, and I keep thinking about it.

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breekeeler's review

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

There was so much potential here, but for me it just didn’t quite come together. To be fair, I adored Supper Club so much that my expectations were incredibly high, so that my be playing into it.

There were parts of this I really loved, especially the second half of the novel when things started to get really unsettling.

For me the characters were never fully developed enough for me to really engage with them though, and I found that the Land portions actually undercut the eeriness of the Sea portions for me and in doing so really made this an ineffectual commentary on capitalism even through that’s why it was pitched as.

So overall enjoyable, just didn’t live up to my personal expectations or the expectations set by the book’s marketing materials.

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lizzie_r's review

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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ashlyntalksbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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stayathomereader's review

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This is a hard one to discuss. I started it expecting a light, women's contemporary fiction style twist on a Greek classic, but I quickly realized the writing and character was definitely more in the vein of dark literary fiction. I felt like this book was a combination if My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and The Circle by Dave Eggers. The ending lost me, both in terms of interest and understanding (the same way Megan Hunt's 'The Harpy' did). I see a lot of reviews mention satire, but I don't think that element came across well for me. I feel like it is a book featuring a spiraling, unreliable, unlikable female narrator and books like this are very hit or miss for me. This was a miss.

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