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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Beautiful, melancholy and yet, hopeful.
made me feel strangely proud of british countryside, but also sad about climate change. the end was incredibly poignant but at times the gorgeous description of the english countryside felt like it came at the cost of the writing doing more
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Let me preface this by saying I was really excited to read a book about crop circles, something I have been interested in for a while. Unfortunately, Benjamin Myers has swallowed the thesaurus. The book is weighed down with so much useless figurative language that it feels (at best) like wading through sludge. I honestly believe this novel could have been told in about 8000 words and would have been the better for it.
Calvert is wearing sunglasses. The lenses are as dark as burned-out stars drifting through infinite time and space, vortices of nothingness.
The sunglasses have dark lenses? And you can't see what's behind them? None of that was implied by the word "sunglasses", so I'm glad the author took the time to explain it to me.
At one point a woman's skin is described as "very wrinkled - like a baked potato, he thinks. Or a jar of pickled walnuts found in an overgrown gazebo on a country estate."
Skin is wrinkled, like some other wrinkled things. The sky is blue, like some other blue things. A "sunken lane is as dark as ink", seeing as ink is, well, famously dark. I'd have less of a bone to pick with all these similes if they weren't so stupidly obvious! "Like a baked potato" could've been funny if we are assuming the character is hungry, but no, we're just having fun listing things. Myers won't even stop at the wrinkly walnuts, he has to tell us where we might find some walnuts - in a gazebo, you say? And where exactly is this gazebo, and who built it, and what condition is it in? He's so eager to lose himself in tangents that he seems to have forgotten that the purpose of this paragraph is to describe a woman. Perhaps we could've explored more of her features beyond the simply pedestrian image of "old, and therefore wrinkled" if there wasn't some bizarre mandate forcing Myers to spend a whole paragraph on every simple metaphor.
If you're able to ignore the style (I'm not saying you necessarily can) there's at least a suggestion of some interesting character dynamics. An SAS vet who served in the Falklands forms an unlikely friendship with a hippie. There seems like there might be some uncertanties in this relationship, but not to worry, Myers gladly explains all of that away and we are pretty clear on where these two stand with each other. I can see why the book stands so heavily on description - the dialogue doesn't read very confidently when we get to it. There's a few moments where the flow feels natural, but it seems like Myers often can't decide whether the characters should sound like humble farmers or highly educated men. (I know that's not a strict continuum, but there are awkward inconsistencies in character voice.) We're told that Calvert is quiet, and doesn't engage with feelings, except he does quite a lot of talking, often about feelings.
The most interesting character beat (and the only one that isn't completely explained away to the reader, thank God) takes place right at the end. Oh no! Just as it was getting intriguing! Why couldn't that have been chapter one?
Skin is wrinkled, like some other wrinkled things. The sky is blue, like some other blue things. A "sunken lane is as dark as ink", seeing as ink is, well, famously dark. I'd have less of a bone to pick with all these similes if they weren't so stupidly obvious! "Like a baked potato" could've been funny if we are assuming the character is hungry, but no, we're just having fun listing things. Myers won't even stop at the wrinkly walnuts, he has to tell us where we might find some walnuts - in a gazebo, you say? And where exactly is this gazebo, and who built it, and what condition is it in? He's so eager to lose himself in tangents that he seems to have forgotten that the purpose of this paragraph is to describe a woman. Perhaps we could've explored more of her features beyond the simply pedestrian image of "old, and therefore wrinkled" if there wasn't some bizarre mandate forcing Myers to spend a whole paragraph on every simple metaphor.
If you're able to ignore the style (I'm not saying you necessarily can) there's at least a suggestion of some interesting character dynamics. An SAS vet who served in the Falklands forms an unlikely friendship with a hippie. There seems like there might be some uncertanties in this relationship, but not to worry, Myers gladly explains all of that away and we are pretty clear on where these two stand with each other. I can see why the book stands so heavily on description - the dialogue doesn't read very confidently when we get to it. There's a few moments where the flow feels natural, but it seems like Myers often can't decide whether the characters should sound like humble farmers or highly educated men. (I know that's not a strict continuum, but there are awkward inconsistencies in character voice.) We're told that Calvert is quiet, and doesn't engage with feelings, except he does quite a lot of talking, often about feelings.
The most interesting character beat (and the only one that isn't completely explained away to the reader, thank God) takes place right at the end. Oh no! Just as it was getting intriguing! Why couldn't that have been chapter one?
Finally, I did think it would've been a nice touch to see some simple illustrations of the crop circles accompanying each chapter, although maybe that's a pain for the publisher to organise. Instead we have an attempt at an epistolary aspect. The news articles about the crop circles are fairly inoffensive, and the one from the Sun about WEIRD PAGANS is actually quite funny (although I wanted REAL articles! I know there's plenty out there). But there's also a unique gem in here, with a poem that we are supposed to believe is from a 1980s Poetry Laureate (at least Myers didn't dare try and attribute it to Ted Hughes specifically).
Time's coarse tongue calls it
High Bassett Butter Barrel
but the gods do not deign
to name it so.
[...]
And the silent hill watches over.
Haemorrhaging history.
Bleeding out beautifully.
Stop, please, you're hurting me!
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
love it when a book feels like a French indie film
slow-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
🐦⬛: perfect golden book
10/10 no notes, might have to re-read every summer
Delightful phrases to share aloud like high basset butter barrel whirlpool
10/10 no notes, might have to re-read every summer
Delightful phrases to share aloud like high basset butter barrel whirlpool