You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
"Shit" counter: 10 times
"Piss" counter: 16 times
"Piss" counter: 16 times
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Amazingly intimate life story of our protagonist while also being a story applicable to anyone. I loved the conceit of a servant girl arriving in early colonized Canada without knowledge of the land and what to expect from it, i.e. seasonal changes, flora and fauna, indigenous communities. This is such a bleak and torturous tale of one woman against all elements but it was never not beautiful. I expected nothing less from Lauren Groff. Excellent.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is a beautiful, stark, and tactile meditation on colonization, patriarchy and power structure, and resilience of the human spirit. Through the eyes of a young girl who grew up enslaved, we escape an early settlement in North America and delve deeper and deeper into the wilderness. She reminisces on her life , her relationships, and her faith transforms as she sees the life in everything around her. It's a salient reminder of our mortality, but also our strength.
Groff's writing is stunning- her prose is poetic and made me feel what the protagonist felt, smelled the scents, and truly made me love this girl so separated from my reality. Her writing is exquisite, yet approachable. It is dripping in metaphor and symbolism, it is clear in it's messages, yet it didn't feel heavy handed or pretentious.
As a warning, this book is stunning but it's also brutal and disgusting, as the 17th century was. It does not shy from the darkest and grossest elements of life, and I reccommend checking the trigger warnings if you are sensitive to any delicate topics.
Groff's writing is stunning- her prose is poetic and made me feel what the protagonist felt, smelled the scents, and truly made me love this girl so separated from my reality. Her writing is exquisite, yet approachable. It is dripping in metaphor and symbolism, it is clear in it's messages, yet it didn't feel heavy handed or pretentious.
As a warning, this book is stunning but it's also brutal and disgusting, as the 17th century was. It does not shy from the darkest and grossest elements of life, and I reccommend checking the trigger warnings if you are sensitive to any delicate topics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism
Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
It’s bleak at times but also this
“What a privilege it was to witness someone you loved awakening to the new day, to the joy of seeing your own face.”
“What a privilege it was to witness someone you loved awakening to the new day, to the joy of seeing your own face.”
A story that was both unsettling and beautiful.
A girl escapes her sad/foodless/lack-of-love life and fleas being caught by running into the wilderness. She finds struggle as she learns to find food, find warmpth, find solitary joy. During the whole book, I wanted her to find companionship in her little woodsy life. I respect the joy she found in the wilderness through immense suffering.
“The wind passed, even as it is passing now, over all the people who find themselves so dulled by the concerns of their own bodies and their own hungers that they cannot stop for a moment to feel its goodness as it brushes against them. And feel it now, so soft, so eternal, this wind against your good and living skin.”
A girl escapes her sad/foodless/lack-of-love life and fleas being caught by running into the wilderness. She finds struggle as she learns to find food, find warmpth, find solitary joy. During the whole book, I wanted her to find companionship in her little woodsy life. I respect the joy she found in the wilderness through immense suffering.
“The wind passed, even as it is passing now, over all the people who find themselves so dulled by the concerns of their own bodies and their own hungers that they cannot stop for a moment to feel its goodness as it brushes against them. And feel it now, so soft, so eternal, this wind against your good and living skin.”
Gut-wrenchingly painful read in the best way. Gorgeous and grotesque. Just like America.
DNF. The stilted, forced writing style is appalling. Nothing is happening, it’s a commentary POV, and I’m bored.