Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
this is the only book that I can really, truly say that I devoured
See, this was going to be at least four stars until I got to the twist in the middle.
I recently read Gillian Flynn's short story in Rogues, the anthology edited by George R.R. Martin. I thought the story was good, and I wasn't really expecting the twist in it. But now that I've read Gone Girl, I'm a little disheartened that Ms. Flynn went ahead with a very similar twist. Too similar, really. :\
I also thought the book was extremely misogynistic. Maybe that was the point. Maybe it was a commentary on how we view gender - that women are all psychotic and crazy and men are all douches. Maybe that's over analyzing it. It's hard not to notice that NONE of the women in this book are shown in a positive light. At first you see that Nick and Amy are both absolutely awful people in equal measures, but then Nick somehow ends up becoming the sane, good one at the end.
I don't know how I feel about this. I really don't.
It kept me reading, so that's a good thing? I'm just confused by what the author was trying to do or say, exactly. What was her point? I could analyze this all day.
I recently read Gillian Flynn's short story in Rogues, the anthology edited by George R.R. Martin. I thought the story was good, and I wasn't really expecting the twist in it. But now that I've read Gone Girl, I'm a little disheartened that Ms. Flynn went ahead with a very similar twist. Too similar, really. :\
I also thought the book was extremely misogynistic. Maybe that was the point. Maybe it was a commentary on how we view gender - that women are all psychotic and crazy and men are all douches. Maybe that's over analyzing it. It's hard not to notice that NONE of the women in this book are shown in a positive light. At first you see that Nick and Amy are both absolutely awful people in equal measures, but then Nick somehow ends up becoming the sane, good one at the end.
I don't know how I feel about this. I really don't.
It kept me reading, so that's a good thing? I'm just confused by what the author was trying to do or say, exactly. What was her point? I could analyze this all day.
literally i didnt even have time to log this because i started it last week and i was up to page 16 until this morning and i JUST finished it oh my god
i feel like... theres a lot to this book so im just going to list some things
- i think having the crellins' source of income be a factory pig farm is a really good choice because of the contrast it creates with this image of the like. genteel old money southern neets they project, especially alan and adora
-speaking of alan i feel like the adjectives used to describe his character really get the image across, especially the connections between him and the food he eats. the sardine scene... i felt physically disgusted. he kind of reminds me of uncle julian in we have always lived in the castle because he projects that same ind of limy nothingness, except alan is less sympathetic i think
-this story is so profoundy usamerican like i cannot imagine it taking place in any other location except the us
-i really like the plain like. ugly ass details written in like the meth acne on some kids or the description of the neighbor's hunting shack etc. i feel like some books that deal with Families With Secrets TM try to glamorize the situation and i like that this does not
-i enjoy the commentary on femininity and these ideas about performing femininity projected through the female characters
-amma crellin is fucked!!!! up!!! but i feel like she also fits into a specific subset of female charcters in literature where they're around 13 or so, precocious, and extremely cruel and like. i do know that some of the girls i went to school with when i was around that age were mean and acted older than their age and certainly some of the violence amma and her friends inflicted on others seems realistic to me especially due to the sexual aspect of it which comes off as really verosimile but?? did i normalize this cruelty growing up??? this trope had to be based on something
i feel like... theres a lot to this book so im just going to list some things
- i think having the crellins' source of income be a factory pig farm is a really good choice because of the contrast it creates with this image of the like. genteel old money southern neets they project, especially alan and adora
-speaking of alan i feel like the adjectives used to describe his character really get the image across, especially the connections between him and the food he eats. the sardine scene... i felt physically disgusted. he kind of reminds me of uncle julian in we have always lived in the castle because he projects that same ind of limy nothingness, except alan is less sympathetic i think
-this story is so profoundy usamerican like i cannot imagine it taking place in any other location except the us
-i really like the plain like. ugly ass details written in like the meth acne on some kids or the description of the neighbor's hunting shack etc. i feel like some books that deal with Families With Secrets TM try to glamorize the situation and i like that this does not
-i enjoy the commentary on femininity and these ideas about performing femininity projected through the female characters
-amma crellin is fucked!!!! up!!! but i feel like she also fits into a specific subset of female charcters in literature where they're around 13 or so, precocious, and extremely cruel and like. i do know that some of the girls i went to school with when i was around that age were mean and acted older than their age and certainly some of the violence amma and her friends inflicted on others seems realistic to me especially due to the sexual aspect of it which comes off as really verosimile but?? did i normalize this cruelty growing up??? this trope had to be based on something
This book was intense from start to finish. I didn't know what to believe anymore!
Wow, I loved this book. I can't think of another thriller/pageturner/mystery type book that kept me up late at night while also making me laugh out loud and marvel at beautiful prose. It's really just about a perfect book.
This book was such a mindfuck and I've never read anything like it before.
4.25 stars
WHOA. This was my first Flynn novel and she did NOT disappoint. She knows how to write a gripping thriller. All the characters made me itch all over, but that's part of why I was so impressed. Everyone's shady, you can't trust any of them. And once the mystery of the Day murders finally gets solved...oof. Excited to pick up Sharp Objects next.
WHOA. This was my first Flynn novel and she did NOT disappoint. She knows how to write a gripping thriller. All the characters made me itch all over, but that's part of why I was so impressed. Everyone's shady, you can't trust any of them. And once the mystery of the Day murders finally gets solved...oof. Excited to pick up Sharp Objects next.
I really struggled through the first half of the book trying to care about these two unpleasant, self-indulgent people. Then Flynn seemed to begin mounting a case for female psychopathy and against the 'cool girl' stereotype that makes so many women mould themselves into insouciant, easy-to-be-with yet still conventionally attractive partners who cheerfully indulge their man's every whim and demand no concomitant emotional investment from him in their own needs and desires.
I'd read an interesting essay by Anne Helen Petersen about how Jennifer Lawrence is the latest in a long tradition of Hollywood 'cool girls', and I remember Petersen quoted a passage from this book. I'd also vaguely been following the fallout from that pseudonymous memoir of a female psychopath law professor that came out last year or earlier this year.
So, basically, I started to get interested in Amy as a forensic case study. I also appreciated her ingenuity in plotting her plots and manipulating others.
But the dilemma in writing from the perspective of a psychopath is that she is not likeable or sympathetic and instead comes across as callous and narcissistic. So 'real Amy' was just as awful as 'Diary Amy' and I took pleasure in seeing her plans go awry.
As for Nick, it annoyed me that he was such a thoughtless, passive-aggressive dickhead who childishly craved approval and never took charge of his life, yet I was still sort of hoping he would 'solve the mystery' and 'punish Amy'.
But then honestly I felt these two deserved each other and I didn't want to read about their stupid lives. I disliked their 'voices'. I didn't feel satisfied with where they ended up and I felt it was a cop-out on Flynn's part rather than some commentary about moral ambiguity.
Also, another thing I noticed in this book: what is with Americans serving crisps or crackers as a side dish? Like, here's a sandwich AND SOME CHIPS. HAVE MORE CARBS. It's up there with their vile 'casseroles' that are made by upending various cans into a baking dish, covering the slop with cheese and/or breadcrumbs and then putting it in the oven. Do only granola bourgies over there cook with raw ingredients?
Anyway, so at least it was easy to read. I tore through the book in just two days and now I can say I've read it when the film comes out, but I really do not understand why people were raving about it as an accomplished feat of narrative structure.
Oh, and one creepy thing? When Nick punches in his birthdate as an alarm code, IT WAS MY BIRTHDATE. Month, day, year. That was uncanny.
I'd read an interesting essay by Anne Helen Petersen about how Jennifer Lawrence is the latest in a long tradition of Hollywood 'cool girls', and I remember Petersen quoted a passage from this book. I'd also vaguely been following the fallout from that pseudonymous memoir of a female psychopath law professor that came out last year or earlier this year.
So, basically, I started to get interested in Amy as a forensic case study. I also appreciated her ingenuity in plotting her plots and manipulating others.
But the dilemma in writing from the perspective of a psychopath is that she is not likeable or sympathetic and instead comes across as callous and narcissistic. So 'real Amy' was just as awful as 'Diary Amy' and I took pleasure in seeing her plans go awry.
As for Nick, it annoyed me that he was such a thoughtless, passive-aggressive dickhead who childishly craved approval and never took charge of his life, yet I was still sort of hoping he would 'solve the mystery' and 'punish Amy'.
But then honestly I felt these two deserved each other and I didn't want to read about their stupid lives. I disliked their 'voices'. I didn't feel satisfied with where they ended up and I felt it was a cop-out on Flynn's part rather than some commentary about moral ambiguity.
Also, another thing I noticed in this book: what is with Americans serving crisps or crackers as a side dish? Like, here's a sandwich AND SOME CHIPS. HAVE MORE CARBS. It's up there with their vile 'casseroles' that are made by upending various cans into a baking dish, covering the slop with cheese and/or breadcrumbs and then putting it in the oven. Do only granola bourgies over there cook with raw ingredients?
Anyway, so at least it was easy to read. I tore through the book in just two days and now I can say I've read it when the film comes out, but I really do not understand why people were raving about it as an accomplished feat of narrative structure.
Oh, and one creepy thing? When Nick punches in his birthdate as an alarm code, IT WAS MY BIRTHDATE. Month, day, year. That was uncanny.