Reviews

This is the story of Marile. She returns to her hometown after many years away. She confronts demons that linger in her past. This reminded me of Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth. She shares her trauma. This book is about hard truths and impossible circumstances. I liked Pineiro's style which is not overly sentimental, but a little jaded and wise. I will definitely read more of her work. This was an quick read. I give this one a 4/5.

susanm_82's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

seventhswan's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

I found this book extremely slow to get started, but once it did I was gripped even though little happens - a good two-thirds of the book is the protagonist, Marile, reflecting. Throughout the slow first section, I couldn't foresee what it was building up to, and found that I was getting bored as the prose was quite dense. However this did mean that I was genuinely shocked by the main event of the novel when it eventually arrived. From that point on, I flew through the rest of the story. I was pleasantly reminded of Ian McEwan by the focus on a single traumatic event and its impact on the rest of Marile's life, and thought the writing style was also similar to McEwan.

I picked this up because I'd previously read Elena Knows and wanted to try something else by this author, so it was only when I'd finished and returned it to the library that I realised it was in the crime and mystery section. I would have been disappointed if I'd been expecting crime fiction, as no crime takes place in this book and any mystery is much more about the characters' feelings and motivations than solving puzzles or looking for clues - I'm not sure where that categorisation came from. I really enjoyed this book, though, as the thought-provoking literary fic it was!

Content Warnings

klucyelen's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

kemcgarr's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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