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cammaleahh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, and Pedophilia
verkisto's review
3.0
Two names seem to still have some clout from the Dell/Abyss line: Kathe Koja is one; Melanie Tem is the other. Both are known as authors who write unusual books that are more about unsettling than scaring, and are (so far, at least) closer to the "cutting edge" that the publisher claimed these books would be. Prodigal was Tem's first novel, and it shows what to expect with her career.
The story is about a family of nine who, as the story opens, is still recovering from their oldest son, who has run away. Told from the point of view of Lucy, the third-oldest child who is eleven years old, we get a somewhat skewed look at the state of the family. We see the grief and the denial of the parents, the anger and confusion of the children, and the interference of the family's therapist, but through the eyes of a character who doesn't have the maturity to understand much of what she sees. She's still in the "I hate you!" stage of her emotional development, and as her family slowly crumbles around her, we see a pattern emerge among the oldest children and how they relate to their parents and their therapist.
Prodigal is not out-and-out horror. It contains disturbing imagery and characters, but Tem gives us hints at things being not right, as opposed to giving us the shock of the monsters fully revealed. Events are ordinary, but hardly mundane, and when Tem does show us events that aren't normal, or even natural, they stand out even more against the backdrop of the family. Her horrors stand in as representations of the Brill family dynamic, but since they're told to us from Lucy's perspective, we know that they're actually happening, since she's not old enough to understand allegory or metaphor.
This book is another re-read for me, but I didn't remember any details of the story as I read it. This doesn't surprise me; when I read this book for the first time, I was looking for out-and-out horror, and I'm sure it disappointed me. Like Lucy, then I didn't have the maturity and experience to recognize the book for being as effective as it is, but now, I can recognize it as the achievement it is. Prodigal, almost thirty years after its first publication, is still relevant.
The story is about a family of nine who, as the story opens, is still recovering from their oldest son, who has run away. Told from the point of view of Lucy, the third-oldest child who is eleven years old, we get a somewhat skewed look at the state of the family. We see the grief and the denial of the parents, the anger and confusion of the children, and the interference of the family's therapist, but through the eyes of a character who doesn't have the maturity to understand much of what she sees. She's still in the "I hate you!" stage of her emotional development, and as her family slowly crumbles around her, we see a pattern emerge among the oldest children and how they relate to their parents and their therapist.
Prodigal is not out-and-out horror. It contains disturbing imagery and characters, but Tem gives us hints at things being not right, as opposed to giving us the shock of the monsters fully revealed. Events are ordinary, but hardly mundane, and when Tem does show us events that aren't normal, or even natural, they stand out even more against the backdrop of the family. Her horrors stand in as representations of the Brill family dynamic, but since they're told to us from Lucy's perspective, we know that they're actually happening, since she's not old enough to understand allegory or metaphor.
This book is another re-read for me, but I didn't remember any details of the story as I read it. This doesn't surprise me; when I read this book for the first time, I was looking for out-and-out horror, and I'm sure it disappointed me. Like Lucy, then I didn't have the maturity and experience to recognize the book for being as effective as it is, but now, I can recognize it as the achievement it is. Prodigal, almost thirty years after its first publication, is still relevant.
the_bookubus's review
4.0
"Don't you ever wonder? Don't you ever want to know what it's like to be dead?"
Eleven year old Lucy is one of seven children. The oldest, Ethan, started getting into trouble in his teenage years; staying out late, stealing, taking drugs. His parents sent him to a juvenile center and therapy. One day he went missing and they haven't seen him since. Part of the family believe he is dead while the others hold out hope that he is alive and will return home at any moment. Now the next oldest child, Rae, seems to be going down the same path and Lucy, the third child, worries if she will be next.
The whole story is told from Lucy's perspective and I thought it was excellently written and felt authentic for such a character. We experience a mix of her general everyday thoughts along with her conflicted feelings about her family, her worries for her future, along with her more strange musings and experiences. The story is somewhat slow-paced although I found it to be a very compelling read.
There are some unsettling scenes in this book amidst the day to day family drama and the story slowly develops into something dark and sinister. Personally I think this element is a spoiler so I don't want to go into detail but it is also a theme that not everyone will want to read so if you want to know you can click on the part marked spoiler:
I thought this was a really unique read in both its story and its storytelling. It is ambiguous but that really worked for me and I didn't feel I had questions even though there were things left unanswered; I felt the ambiguity worked really well for the characters and the story overall. I know the child narrator and the ambiguity won't be everyone's cup of tea but if any of this piques your interest then I definitely recommend checking it out.
Eleven year old Lucy is one of seven children. The oldest, Ethan, started getting into trouble in his teenage years; staying out late, stealing, taking drugs. His parents sent him to a juvenile center and therapy. One day he went missing and they haven't seen him since. Part of the family believe he is dead while the others hold out hope that he is alive and will return home at any moment. Now the next oldest child, Rae, seems to be going down the same path and Lucy, the third child, worries if she will be next.
The whole story is told from Lucy's perspective and I thought it was excellently written and felt authentic for such a character. We experience a mix of her general everyday thoughts along with her conflicted feelings about her family, her worries for her future, along with her more strange musings and experiences. The story is somewhat slow-paced although I found it to be a very compelling read.
There are some unsettling scenes in this book amidst the day to day family drama and the story slowly develops into something dark and sinister. Personally I think this element is a spoiler so I don't want to go into detail but it is also a theme that not everyone will want to read so if you want to know you can click on the part marked spoiler:
Spoiler
child abuse and paedophilia.I thought this was a really unique read in both its story and its storytelling. It is ambiguous but that really worked for me and I didn't feel I had questions even though there were things left unanswered; I felt the ambiguity worked really well for the characters and the story overall. I know the child narrator and the ambiguity won't be everyone's cup of tea but if any of this piques your interest then I definitely recommend checking it out.
bombegranate's review
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
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