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kindremarx's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I'm going to try to come back and edit this later because it is late and I'm coming right out of finishing this book, but I really liked it. (Keep this in mind as I proceed to list half a dozen things I hated about it.) It's the intersection of everything I needed right now-- dark, set in a school, with body horror, the looming threat of climate change, and young queer women whose main conflict isn't that they're queer.
However, the book was full of mysteries to unfold, and, while many of them were ultimately explained, it was with a strange mix of hand-holding and under-explaining. Certain aspects I wanted more details on that never came, while other times I was given loads of details I could've gone without. I've also got a gripe with Byatt's characterization. In Hetty's chapters, she's a thoughtful, caring friend; in her own chapters, she's made out to have been a pathological liar who cared for nothing and no one. Since she's recovered at the end having her personality essentially wiped from her, these two aspects of her are never reconciled, and I ultimately wonder why she was characterized in that way at all, because I don't feel like it added much to the story. There are a few inconsistencies in the book as well, including one in which Hetty states she's never seen Byatt on the mainland, but then, at the end, there's a vignette in which she recalls going to the mainland with Byatt and Reese to purchase new tights, which is ultimately given to explain that things are alright now that the girls are back together. Also, character-wise, Hetty, who is constantly gripped by overwhelming guilt even when her hands are relatively clean, certainly walks away without a trace of guilt when she's leaving roughly forty girls to fall victim to a) a bear attack and b) a bomb strike. Lastly, the end felt kind of hokey to me. Byatt's death, established to the reader with such finality early on, is miraculously reversed in the last dozen or so pages of the book. It really reminded me of the (very satisfying) ending of Life is Strange until Byatt is deus ex machina'd back to life. (She'd supposedly been dead for nearly 24 hours. How does it make any sense?) This didn't totally ruin things for me; the understanding that there is a way to cure the Tox solves the glaring issue of how they could possibly justify going to the mainland, though again, the issue of how they're going to leave forty Tox-infected girls behind to die when they know they can be cured is never discussed.
Now that I've got all that off my chest, I've got a bunch of stuff I really adored about this book. It's incredibly atmospheric, enabled by powerful language. It's cold and claustrophobic, but those feelings are matched with the warmth and strength of the relationships between the girls. There characters are complex, and allowed to feel their feelings truly and deeply, often with strong somatic associations that fit well among the body horror of the book. And they're ugly! They're allowed to be ugly! They've got physical and emotional flaws and that's okay. And, as I mentioned earlier, there are queer characters who aren't in strife over being queer. This book made me feel a relief almost, like this work was normalizing the experiences of young women, something that was so scarcely represented to me in the media I had access to when I was younger. It makes me feel good about the media that young women are growing up with today.
However, the book was full of mysteries to unfold, and, while many of them were ultimately explained, it was with a strange mix of hand-holding and under-explaining. Certain aspects I wanted more details on that never came, while other times I was given loads of details I could've gone without.
Now that I've got all that off my chest, I've got a bunch of stuff I really adored about this book. It's incredibly atmospheric, enabled by powerful language. It's cold and claustrophobic, but those feelings are matched with the warmth and strength of the relationships between the girls. There characters are complex, and allowed to feel their feelings truly and deeply, often with strong somatic associations that fit well among the body horror of the book. And they're ugly! They're allowed to be ugly! They've got physical and emotional flaws and that's okay. And, as I mentioned earlier, there are queer characters who aren't in strife over being queer. This book made me feel a relief almost, like this work was normalizing the experiences of young women, something that was so scarcely represented to me in the media I had access to when I was younger. It makes me feel good about the media that young women are growing up with today.
Edited: Deducting half a star because, the more I think about it, the more I don't like the ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Animal death and Torture
athenajpeg's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
As someone whose seen a good deal of gory movies and violent scenes in books, this one scratched a very different itch for me. Every shocking moment hit a different emotional beat, and the stakes were tangibly present. Content warnings abound here for... just about any sort of bodily harm you can think of, so keep that in mind if you check it out.
What struck me most throughout was the tone, which is distant and straight to the point, but in a way that makes overwhelmingly clear how adjusted the characters are to their cruel world and its dwindling hopes. Dystopia is the new ordinary, and the characters are confined to their living space by fear of the mysterious toxin that kills and disfigues all it touches...
I'm glad I read it before coronavirus hit. Might be a different experience to re-read today.
Also doubles as the book that made me realize I'm a sucker for cheesy romance tropes if its sapphic. This subplot isn't center stage, but its nice to have queer characters that aren't defined by a relationship.
Edit: I have to say after revisiting this book, it doesn't really hold up. The characters were much more flat and frustrating than I remembered, falling into the same flaws over and over in ways they didn't grow through. Also, lots of notes taken directly from Annihilation with less substance. The concept is still really neat but theres just better horror stories and better queer romances than this has to offer.
What struck me most throughout was the tone, which is distant and straight to the point, but in a way that makes overwhelmingly clear how adjusted the characters are to their cruel world and its dwindling hopes. Dystopia is the new ordinary, and the characters are confined to their living space by fear of the mysterious toxin that kills and disfigues all it touches...
I'm glad I read it before coronavirus hit. Might be a different experience to re-read today.
Also doubles as the book that made me realize I'm a sucker for cheesy romance tropes if its sapphic. This subplot isn't center stage, but its nice to have queer characters that aren't defined by a relationship.
Edit: I have to say after revisiting this book, it doesn't really hold up. The characters were much more flat and frustrating than I remembered, falling into the same flaws over and over in ways they didn't grow through. Also, lots of notes taken directly from Annihilation with less substance. The concept is still really neat but theres just better horror stories and better queer romances than this has to offer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Torture
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