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leggierigia20's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
- Shortlisted for the Booker International 2024
“What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without them?”
Told in brief, precise vignettes, the unnamed narrator recounts her relationship with her twin brother and how it shifted over time.
What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without them? This quote is what lies at the heart of Jente Posthuma’s heartbreakingly simple What I’d Rather Not Think About. The narrator is a twin whose brother has recently taken his own life. She looks back on their childhood, and tells of their adult lives: how her brother tried to find happiness, but lost himself in various men and the Bhagwan movement, though never completely. This is the story of a depressive brother, and the twin sister he leaves behind in the wake of his suicide, from the perspective of this twin sister who loves and resents her twin, and above all, missed him terribly.
This is a deeply moving exploration of grief, wryly funny, and heartbreakingly sad. I read it all in a just a couple hours because I was just so engrossed in the way it accurately captured dark humour through its understated tone. It’s above every other average mourning novel in its utter rawness and authenticity. The strength here is in Posthuma’s minimalist prose— razor sharp and perfect in the most nonchalant ways, and it’s this prose that brings such a grim subject some light. It’s impossible to name everything that is beautiful about this novel.
It’s the simplicity of this that makes it so melancholic, and so immersive that I got fully lost and completely forgot I was reading it.
There are no easy answers, maybe no answers at all, to suicide. But the way Posthuma uses vignettes to capture pieces of the narrator’s memories of her brother are just that: not an answer but a mosaic of a recollection, piecing together the seemingly insignificant days we spend with our loved ones, until we realize that are all we have when they leave.
What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without them? This quote is what lies at the heart of Jente Posthuma’s heartbreakingly simple What I’d Rather Not Think About. The narrator is a twin whose brother has recently taken his own life. She looks back on their childhood, and tells of their adult lives: how her brother tried to find happiness, but lost himself in various men and the Bhagwan movement, though never completely. This is the story of a depressive brother, and the twin sister he leaves behind in the wake of his suicide, from the perspective of this twin sister who loves and resents her twin, and above all, missed him terribly.
This is a deeply moving exploration of grief, wryly funny, and heartbreakingly sad. I read it all in a just a couple hours because I was just so engrossed in the way it accurately captured dark humour through its understated tone. It’s above every other average mourning novel in its utter rawness and authenticity. The strength here is in Posthuma’s minimalist prose— razor sharp and perfect in the most nonchalant ways, and it’s this prose that brings such a grim subject some light. It’s impossible to name everything that is beautiful about this novel.
It’s the simplicity of this that makes it so melancholic, and so immersive that I got fully lost and completely forgot I was reading it.
There are no easy answers, maybe no answers at all, to suicide. But the way Posthuma uses vignettes to capture pieces of the narrator’s memories of her brother are just that: not an answer but a mosaic of a recollection, piecing together the seemingly insignificant days we spend with our loved ones, until we realize that are all we have when they leave.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
Depictions of suicidal ideation; main character struggles with depression and the plot is revolved around his suicide.lgiery's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
3.5
I wouldn't say that I enjoyed this book, but I did find it introspective and tremendously insightful. It's about memory, life, death, grief, and survival.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Abandonment
my_a's review
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-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
4.0
Not what I was expecting- in form or focus. The vignette style was unique and I really enjoyed it, short and sharp, this kept my focus and gave the story a more fluid and emerging narrative.
I feel like the focus of the book is slightly mis-sold by the blurb and quotes etc. It's less about the sister coping post-loss, most of the book is about their lives growing up, then his final few months and only the final section of the book is the years after.
But still, I enjoyed it. The prose was direct but precise and layered in places. The final sentences got me.
I feel like the focus of the book is slightly mis-sold by the blurb and quotes etc. It's less about the sister coping post-loss, most of the book is about their lives growing up, then his final few months and only the final section of the book is the years after.
But still, I enjoyed it. The prose was direct but precise and layered in places. The final sentences got me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Death, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual assault
natbue's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts
schadenfreudes's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is too heart-wrenching for me, about a twin that grew apart when they lived different lives. The brother got depressed and then drowned himself in his favorite river. The twin sister told her coping mechanism in a sorrowful and poignant way to overcome her sadness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts
sinneblommen's review
emotional
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
4.0
A novel about grief, loss, and love, told through a series of vignettes by a woman who has lost her twin brother to suicide. However, it is about more than his death, it is about how being a sibling (and especially a twin) affects your outlook on the world. How you spend a childhood with someone else, orbiting each other, pulling at each other, and growing around each other.
It reminded me of my own relationship with my brother, being so similar, yet so incredibly different. Although we never were as co-dependent as the main characters are in this, I really want to give him a hug.
It reminded me of my own relationship with my brother, being so similar, yet so incredibly different. Although we never were as co-dependent as the main characters are in this, I really want to give him a hug.
My brother had gone and with him, all of my past. I came from nothing and was going nowhere.
The writing is incredibly direct, honest, without frills, which works well with the vignette style of telling the story. You skip around a lot, but you always knows what’s going on. Plus it really showcases how grief changes over the course of the mourning process. You remember things, you lose touch with your feelings, you want to know everything, you hold on too tight, and eventually, you let things go.
Considering it is a book about suicide, there are definitely some dark moments, although none of them are graphic or obscene. There are vignettes about bullying, sexual assault, depression, loss of a sibling, and suicide.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Suicide
sparklynightmare's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Sexual assault and Bullying
ameliasbooks's review against another edition
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
As much as I was interested in the story and in the special connection of twins, even more with regard to be losing someone to death, I struggled to connect with this story, it always kept me somehow at a distance. I don't think the writing in vignettes was the reason for that, I've read other books in that style, which I loved.
Also coincidentally I had just read In Defence of the Act by Effie Black, before this book came in from the library and in comparison that book impressed me a lot more with its writing about suicide.
The characters are also not that well developed, they are lacking some depth.
And throwing in Mengele and the concentration camps for no obvious reasons, felt not only unnecessary to me, but made me feeling a bit uncomfortable.
Also coincidentally I had just read In Defence of the Act by Effie Black, before this book came in from the library and in comparison that book impressed me a lot more with its writing about suicide.
The characters are also not that well developed, they are lacking some depth.
And throwing in Mengele and the concentration camps for no obvious reasons, felt not only unnecessary to me, but made me feeling a bit uncomfortable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
andreeavis's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts
jeongmilk's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
reading this as a millennial, it felt like i was growing up with the unnamed narrator and her twin. what made me empathize more was their family dynamics: the unspoken status quo "must-be's" that have plagued gender and mental health issues since the dawn of time and the fact that their parents were both absent. all these minuscule clues are hidden within short vignettes that allow the reader to fit together pieces of a puzzle; a puzzle intertwining the lives of two siblings and how they both could and couldn't live without the other.
i loved that it painted a real picture of what depression looked like and how that affected not just the brother, but also the people around him-- most especially his twin. nothing ever really "happens" until you get to 60% of the book, but it does pick up. and something does happen that further changes the trajectory of things.
if i had to be honest with myself, the first few parts bored me and i wondered why some specific events/commentaries (?) were included here and there because to me, it didn't seem like they added significant value to the story because they were just glossed over.
i do have to agree that this is a peculiar choice for a booker prize, but it's not, by all means, a book to miss out on. i'd recommend it to those who can handle the darkness and melancholic but thoughtful experiences.
i loved that it painted a real picture of what depression looked like and how that affected not just the brother, but also the people around him-- most especially his twin. nothing ever really "happens" until you get to 60% of the book, but it does pick up. and something does happen that further changes the trajectory of things.
if i had to be honest with myself, the first few parts bored me and i wondered why some specific events/commentaries (?) were included here and there because to me, it didn't seem like they added significant value to the story because they were just glossed over.
i do have to agree that this is a peculiar choice for a booker prize, but it's not, by all means, a book to miss out on. i'd recommend it to those who can handle the darkness and melancholic but thoughtful experiences.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts