Reviews with content warning for Death - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

106 reviews

megwhitlock's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of the most incredible, thought-provoking books I've read in a long time, even if it took me a while to get into it.

The main character is so utterly believable and it's a pleasure to get sucked into her world.

It's always nice when a book challenges your perspective on things.

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dizzzybrook's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I adored everything about this book. I’ve found myself becoming increasingly bored with literary mystery/thriller books written from the POV of an unreliable narrator but Tokarczuk’s execution here is really great. Janina is one of my favorite literary characters that I’ve read in quite a while. Honestly, this book could have had absolutely no plot and I would have considered it a six star book anyways based on how incredible I found the prose alone.

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rhgrimes's review

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reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

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marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

4.0

As the main character and narrator of this darkly funny novel, Mrs. Duszejko steals the show. A fierce old woman who lives alone in a house on a remote Polish plateau, she has a big personality as an eccentric astrologer, vegetarian, non-Catholic, and translator of William Blake. She patrols the area surrounding her home daily and has a few, select friends. After her neighbor, “Bigfoot,” is found dead, a series of deaths unfolds, but no one will hear her theories about stags and stars. Ultimately, this is a story of a woman in a significant amount of grief. Beata Poźniak’s narration is exemplary—just perfect.

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mandaleigh's review

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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whatthekatdraggedin's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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floatinthevoid's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a strange one.
I came in with little to no expectation. I heard about Tokarczuk a lot, but i don't want to read Flights yet, because it seems like a challenging read so i chose this one.

This book is surprisingly quirky? But from my experience it's not the insufferable quirky type. Philosophical musings inside the head of the main character happens a lot. Although i'm a bit wary at the beginning, it doesn't really bother me that much later on.

Janina Duszejko is one of a kind main character. So authentic yet realistic. Almost like an amalgamation of mad woman and witches archetypes. She is a middle aged woman, living in a barely isolated area in the forest, near the poland-czech border. She does a lot of things: an english teacher, a (sort of) housekeeper, a translator, an ex engineer. She has a strong fixation with astrology to the point that it drives her to do definitely very bad things. As a character, she's fascinating to observe. It's very clear that beneath her odd layers, she's a lonely and depressed old woman.

Despite that, i found that a big chunk in the middle part is so mind-numbingly dull. I know the mystery aspect is not meant to be a whodunit as the main focus, but maybe it should be shorter and weirder. The few murders that happened in this book feels like forever to read. What pushed me to keep reading forward is unrelated to the book itself (if i see my reading progress is already more than 70%, it's very likely i'll finish the book).

The writing style is beautiful, though a bit dense if i may be honest.

My favorite part of the book is the quote below. Despite Janina's offputting aura, the things that she did in her elementary classroom? I respect that.

'Rumours have reached me before now of your unconventional teaching methods. Apparently you burn candles, some sort of fireworks during lessons, then other teachers complain about a smell of smoke in the classroom. The parents are afraid it’s something satanic, Satanism. Perhaps they’re just simple people… And you give the children strange things to eat. Durian-flavoured sweets, for instance. What on earth is that? If any of them were poisoned, who’d be responsible? Have you ever stopped to think?'

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