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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
here’s to the tender tortured souls with compassion for birds and rodents
Captures the perfect gothic creepiness of being a lonely teen girl.
dark
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
dark
medium-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
“She recognised in herself a distaste for people, which was both physical and intellectual; and yet she nurtured a shameful, secret desire for popularity, or at least for acceptance, neither of which came her way.”
There is no better way to describe Janet. She spent her life facing this internal battle, being constantly misunderstood, not only neglected but ultimately disliked by her parents and all her siblings, every schoolmate she encountered, and all the while she wanted only to create a lasting human connection. She craved attention and adoration, but her aversion to most things that made young girls palatable was her biggest adversary.
The two motifs that stuck out most to me were the comfort that Janet found in birds and etymology. This book was riddled with bird symbolism; many of the words whose meaning I had to look up turned out to be different breeds or Scottish birds that were unknown to me. To me, this drew a parallel to Janet’s constant desire to take flight, at first from her home at Auchnasaugh to what she thought would be her glamour new life at boarding school, and then to return home again and again. The etymological recurrences were more indicative of the way Janet’s literary brain had, over time, felt it was easiest for her to relate to things she found significant in life. If she knew the meaning and origins of words that sounded beautiful to her, maybe such beauty was obtainable and she might also be seen that way someday.
This book took me about twice as long as it would for me to finish an average 200-page novel, but I’m not sure I have ever read anything with prose this rich that most lines felt like poetry. I read many lines 3-4 times just to make sure I understood the meaning.
“Janet began to hate the sea. There was so much of it, flowing, counter-flowing, entering other seas, slyly furthering its interests beyond the mind’s reckoning; no wonder it could pass itself off as sky; it was infinite, a voracious marine confederacy. She saw how it diminished people as they walked along the shore; they lost their identity, were no more than pebbles, part of the sea’s scheme.”
Oh, to have a mind that comes up with passages like that. I read that this book needed no editing, and lines like that moved me to see why. This book was dense and tragic and beautiful, and I haven’t approached the way I read something quite like this since studying for school. I will be thinking about Janet for a long time to come.
There is no better way to describe Janet. She spent her life facing this internal battle, being constantly misunderstood, not only neglected but ultimately disliked by her parents and all her siblings, every schoolmate she encountered, and all the while she wanted only to create a lasting human connection. She craved attention and adoration, but her aversion to most things that made young girls palatable was her biggest adversary.
The two motifs that stuck out most to me were the comfort that Janet found in birds and etymology. This book was riddled with bird symbolism; many of the words whose meaning I had to look up turned out to be different breeds or Scottish birds that were unknown to me. To me, this drew a parallel to Janet’s constant desire to take flight, at first from her home at Auchnasaugh to what she thought would be her glamour new life at boarding school, and then to return home again and again. The etymological recurrences were more indicative of the way Janet’s literary brain had, over time, felt it was easiest for her to relate to things she found significant in life. If she knew the meaning and origins of words that sounded beautiful to her, maybe such beauty was obtainable and she might also be seen that way someday.
This book took me about twice as long as it would for me to finish an average 200-page novel, but I’m not sure I have ever read anything with prose this rich that most lines felt like poetry. I read many lines 3-4 times just to make sure I understood the meaning.
“Janet began to hate the sea. There was so much of it, flowing, counter-flowing, entering other seas, slyly furthering its interests beyond the mind’s reckoning; no wonder it could pass itself off as sky; it was infinite, a voracious marine confederacy. She saw how it diminished people as they walked along the shore; they lost their identity, were no more than pebbles, part of the sea’s scheme.”
Oh, to have a mind that comes up with passages like that. I read that this book needed no editing, and lines like that moved me to see why. This book was dense and tragic and beautiful, and I haven’t approached the way I read something quite like this since studying for school. I will be thinking about Janet for a long time to come.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A haunting, beautiful elegy for an awkward life cut murderously short. Janet, although a happy toddler, is never quite understood by her family or anyone else. Though her circumstances are extraordinary - living in a huge, drafty Scottish castle that is also a boys' school with a crazy White Russian widowed aunt and four siblings who are decidedly more loved than she is - she is also an extraordinary child, lonely and in love with animals and Greek poetry in the original. The book details a life full of misunderstandings and humiliations, but also moments of transcendence, beauty, and freedom. Her life isn't unending misery - in fact, Janet seems to live in a state of wonder even when she's suffering. I appreciated that the descriptions of her trials aren't written to shock or titillate - it all seems to take place in a dream state thanks to the beautiful, unusually phrased writing. Although the ending is known right from the first page, the eventual denouement still comes as a shock, a stab through the heart. The book is a gem, rightly republished for new audiences.
I don’t know how I feel about this. The language is gorgeous and I desperately wish I wrote the beginning. I suppose my issue was that I couldn’t figure out why I was reading it other than to see how the first page comes to be, and it never gets as sexy as those first few pages
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Some of the most beautiful writing I've read, recounting sad, funny, relatable girlhood.
Kept starting and stopping. May go back to it again at another time.