Reviews

Maggie O'Farrell has never disappointed yet! I really like the story-telling in her dreamy, but plot-driven books. Her characters are always interesting and believable.

This is an old one; I needed to order it from a used book store in London. :)

lemons25's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

2.75

iris_lu's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

samarakroeger's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

2.5

yikes. this was so confusing? Maggie O’Farrell keeps switching between two main threads, a ton of different timelines, and WAY too many inconsequential side characters. It felt unfocused and like she was trying to discuss too many themes at the same time without giving any of them sufficient depth. I ended up just not really caring about any of the characters because of the kaleidoscopic nature of the novel.

I don’t have a great track record with books where the two threads eventually become one at the end somehow, and the sappiness that came out of the blue in The Distance Between Us was no exception. (And what a boring, generic title — I should have known!)

Anyways, the writing was beautiful on a sentence-level but that can never fully save a book for me.

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