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catlady_69's review
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
rebeccagcook18's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.0
kind of like if Never Let Me Go and Sorrow and Bliss had a baby. The parts of this that are good are genuinely very good but the second half of the book was fairly confusing because the message trying to be made seemed to get lost completely.
heledela's review
dark
mysterious
tense
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
4.0
zuly's review
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
katconig's review
dark
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? It's complicated
2.0
This feels like a short story that was forced into becoming a novel. I think it could have worked as a short story set exclusively at the facility. But as is, it was an interesting premise that fell irredeemably flat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Suicide
Moderate: Cancer and Death
stucifer_'s review
2.0
(ARC received via goodreads giveaway)
The premise of this is really promising. A woman, living in grief-stricken paralysis following the death of her sister, begins growing strange, long black hairs along her spine, hairs which won't come out and which have eerily strong sensation when touched or tugged. The book takes place on a dual timeline, a trick that I enjoy when it provides concurrent insights along both tracks, but one which has become very popular and thus threatens to become blasé. In this case, it was equal parts illuminating and confusing, as Marie - wait. Before I get to that. The two sisters are named Marie and Marianne. Why, why why would you do that??? I think the author intended there to be a bleed of consciousness between the two, and thus to illustrate their closeness via their names, but it was very confusing and I had to constantly remind myself which was which, and re-read to remember who was being talked about.
Ok, back to the timeline thing : I think to an extent the author used this structure effectively, as we learned more about Marie's illness and death, and the fracturing of the sister's relationship, as well as putting the pieces together about how Marianne got to where we know she is when the other timeline begins. It also allows us insight into their parents, who I was fascinated by; they were very well-crafted and haunting characters.
Ultimately though, I have two complaints with this book. The first one is the style, and this is a subjective complaint (i.e., I think the author achieved what they intended, it just didn't work for me). The narration of this book is very very introspective and very cerebral. It got very old for me to be trodding through Marianne's thoughts to this extent when she wasn't particularly that engaging to me. Yes, she's grieving, yes she's worried about this medical situation, yes she misses her sister....okay got it. I think the dives into her psyche probably were meant to follow as she lost track of her identity, but she just bored me. I don't think I liked her very much, ultimately.
The second complaint is objective (i.e., I don't think something was done well). The explanation and resolution, in the second half of the MASSIVE final chapter (which should have been split into two or even three chapters) around the healing center and the mysterious hairs, were just. It was very manila file ex machina, without having been established earlier in the narrative or tying up previous loose ends. There was no satisfaction in the reveal, just a bit of "...oh so that's it?" And then the book ends, quite abruptly, without ever circling back to the introductory scene. Which I still don't know when or even if that actually occurred. I think there's an intriguing idea here, but it isn't fleshed out in a way that makes the reveal satisfactory, and the climactic moment is at the end of a marathon of a chapter and feels both exhausting to get to, and sudden at the end.
There's a couple details that are inconsistent (how long had Eric been at Nede? He says a couple weeks and then two pages later says three months), but considering this is an ARC those things, I can assume, have been edited. On the whole though, this was a bit of a letdown considering the summary.
This book also contains suicide (multiple times, but one that is more than mentioned), which while handled well and not shocking in the course of the narrative, is still worth stating explicitly as a CW.
The premise of this is really promising. A woman, living in grief-stricken paralysis following the death of her sister, begins growing strange, long black hairs along her spine, hairs which won't come out and which have eerily strong sensation when touched or tugged. The book takes place on a dual timeline, a trick that I enjoy when it provides concurrent insights along both tracks, but one which has become very popular and thus threatens to become blasé. In this case, it was equal parts illuminating and confusing, as Marie - wait. Before I get to that. The two sisters are named Marie and Marianne. Why, why why would you do that??? I think the author intended there to be a bleed of consciousness between the two, and thus to illustrate their closeness via their names, but it was very confusing and I had to constantly remind myself which was which, and re-read to remember who was being talked about.
Ok, back to the timeline thing : I think to an extent the author used this structure effectively, as we learned more about Marie's illness and death, and the fracturing of the sister's relationship, as well as putting the pieces together about how Marianne got to where we know she is when the other timeline begins. It also allows us insight into their parents, who I was fascinated by; they were very well-crafted and haunting characters.
Ultimately though, I have two complaints with this book. The first one is the style, and this is a subjective complaint (i.e., I think the author achieved what they intended, it just didn't work for me). The narration of this book is very very introspective and very cerebral. It got very old for me to be trodding through Marianne's thoughts to this extent when she wasn't particularly that engaging to me. Yes, she's grieving, yes she's worried about this medical situation, yes she misses her sister....okay got it. I think the dives into her psyche probably were meant to follow as she lost track of her identity, but she just bored me. I don't think I liked her very much, ultimately.
The second complaint is objective (i.e., I don't think something was done well). The explanation and resolution, in the second half of the MASSIVE final chapter (which should have been split into two or even three chapters) around the healing center and the mysterious hairs, were just. It was very manila file ex machina, without having been established earlier in the narrative or tying up previous loose ends. There was no satisfaction in the reveal, just a bit of "...oh so that's it?" And then the book ends, quite abruptly, without ever circling back to the introductory scene. Which I still don't know when or even if that actually occurred. I think there's an intriguing idea here, but it isn't fleshed out in a way that makes the reveal satisfactory, and the climactic moment is at the end of a marathon of a chapter and feels both exhausting to get to, and sudden at the end.
There's a couple details that are inconsistent (how long had Eric been at Nede? He says a couple weeks and then two pages later says three months), but considering this is an ARC those things, I can assume, have been edited. On the whole though, this was a bit of a letdown considering the summary.
This book also contains suicide (multiple times, but one that is more than mentioned), which while handled well and not shocking in the course of the narrative, is still worth stating explicitly as a CW.