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lorenag5's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked this book. Though it came highly recommended and I wanted to love it. And I didn’t. This said, some of things that made me not love it are things that may be right up the alley of other readers: an omniscient third person narrative voice that can sometimes feel a little emotionally detached (not to be confused with the book being unemotional, it’s a very emotional book. Only that the narrator is giving us that emotion from a very outside perspective), and nearly every chapter featuring a totally new central character all linked together through living in or attachment to a single house over centuries.
Which for me, I tend to be attracted to very character driven books, and so being presented with a new central character each chapter just as I was getting to know the previous one was difficult for me to get into. But what I will say is, the book is super interesting. It’s very concept driven and the concept is incredibly compelling. One of the things I really did love in its concept was the usage of ephemera. Oftentimes, between chapters, there would be things like photographs, news clippings, obituaries, poems, journal excerpts, etc, which really made the world feel so real and palpable.
So for those who love somewhat experimental concept driven books, you will likely love this. And there are multiple characters who I did find incredibly compelling and was sad to depart from so quickly when the book moved on to a new inhabitant of the house. The book is also undeniably very well written and constructed. I think that while it wasn’t a five star read for me, it would be a five star read for many others. In fact I already recommended it to two different friends who I think would absolutely lose their minds over this book based on their reading tastes. So don’t let my criticism deter you if this is the kind of storytelling you like!
Which for me, I tend to be attracted to very character driven books, and so being presented with a new central character each chapter just as I was getting to know the previous one was difficult for me to get into. But what I will say is, the book is super interesting. It’s very concept driven and the concept is incredibly compelling. One of the things I really did love in its concept was the usage of ephemera. Oftentimes, between chapters, there would be things like photographs, news clippings, obituaries, poems, journal excerpts, etc, which really made the world feel so real and palpable.
So for those who love somewhat experimental concept driven books, you will likely love this. And there are multiple characters who I did find incredibly compelling and was sad to depart from so quickly when the book moved on to a new inhabitant of the house. The book is also undeniably very well written and constructed. I think that while it wasn’t a five star read for me, it would be a five star read for many others. In fact I already recommended it to two different friends who I think would absolutely lose their minds over this book based on their reading tastes. So don’t let my criticism deter you if this is the kind of storytelling you like!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
vireogirl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Very disparate, some chapters much harder to read than others. The randomness was too much for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
very_mellifluous's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
So...this book was not what I expected it to be. It was more somber (only by my interpretation) as a whole, and because the main character is sort of, in reality, the house (or the north woods), there is a lot of death that we are brought along to watch and deal with, which is hard for me!
There is a lot of beautiful writing of Nature, and I want Daniel Mason and Anne Carson to collaborate on something. He has a lovely sense of writing rhythm into his prose and my favorite passages involved descriptions of the woods and flora/fauna within.
Truthfully I would have loved for the book to end on a high note, with the final inhabitant we watch be someone who cares for the house and 'resets' it, almost like Osgood, with her care and enthusiasm for the place. That does not happen, but what we do see is beautiful and idyllic. It occurred to me that Osgood and his daughters called the place Eden, and it seems that they truly imbued that into the land. Truly the character I care about most is the painter, William Teale, who deserved love!!!! There is a character involved in his story that I spent the rest of the book cursing at.
There is also a line from Osgood's narration at the start where he writes about the spirit of the eldest apple tree being a guardian for the rest of the orchard, and he writes: "I have come to the opinion, generally, that he who does good to the land shall be protected, while he who trespasses upon her will be met with violent return." It turns out that Osgood grows to be this sort of figure himself, which is very sweet and comforting.
Lastly, I found it interesting that the "original" pair we see inhabiting this space, the pre-Puritan escapees, were not more present in the narrative. Most of the other characters are threaded through newer storylines, but these are allowed to rest. I wonder why Mason chose to do this - instead, he uses Osgood as an anchor point (okay, we see a lot of the people in between Osgood and the first pair, but Osgood feels different). The first pair really feel like a localized Adam and Eve, who are too pure and mythical to dredge from the past. They spiritually inhabit the place, but don't make any appearances. I just wanted to note that for myself.
Also, the section when Nora comes into the glade with Osgood could totally be scored with Televangelism by Ethel Cain.
There is a lot of beautiful writing of Nature, and I want Daniel Mason and Anne Carson to collaborate on something. He has a lovely sense of writing rhythm into his prose and my favorite passages involved descriptions of the woods and flora/fauna within.
Truthfully I would have loved for the book to end on a high note, with the final inhabitant we watch be someone who cares for the house and 'resets' it, almost like Osgood, with her care and enthusiasm for the place. That does not happen, but what we do see is beautiful and idyllic. It occurred to me that Osgood and his daughters called the place Eden, and it seems that they truly imbued that into the land. Truly the character I care about most is the painter, William Teale, who deserved love!!!! There is a character involved in his story that I spent the rest of the book cursing at.
There is also a line from Osgood's narration at the start where he writes about the spirit of the eldest apple tree being a guardian for the rest of the orchard, and he writes: "I have come to the opinion, generally, that he who does good to the land shall be protected, while he who trespasses upon her will be met with violent return." It turns out that
Lastly, I found it interesting that the "original" pair we see inhabiting this space, the pre-Puritan escapees, were not more present in the narrative. Most of the other characters are threaded through newer storylines, but these are allowed to rest. I wonder why Mason chose to do this - instead, he uses Osgood as an anchor point (okay, we see a lot of the people in between Osgood and the first pair, but Osgood feels different). The first pair really feel like a localized Adam and Eve, who are too pure and mythical to dredge from the past. They spiritually inhabit the place, but don't make any appearances. I just wanted to note that for myself.
Also, the section when
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Mental illness and Violence
blankcrayon's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
2.0
Interesting concept, but I didn’t enjoy the execution. I found myself wanting to finish the book, and I didn’t connect with the characters. The fantasy elements brought in toward the second half of the book were also not my cup of tea.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexual content and War
mmccombs's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I absolutely adored this book! So creative and fresh, the prose was lovely and the mix of mediums (chapters, letters, songs, images) was so engaging. Following one house through time made for an incredibly interesting character study, the setting being the main character and the people flowing in and out of it character development. The way nature was described filled me with wonder and made me want to go on a hike (and I do not hike!), but also made me interrogate how humans have perceived “nature” over time. I loved thinking about how each inhabitant of the yellow house came to it with different intentions, with different relationships to the solitude and wildness it offered. And seeing how characters we meet show up later for other characters, how their actions are remembered when so much of their context is lost to time. It was also unexpectedly pretty funny, like there was some silly content and really funny bits that caught me by surprise. Basically this was a book that I enjoyed just thinking about, one that I will probably continue to engage with and reread!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Colonisation
madison_mls's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did! The writing was beautiful and each story had such a unique voice and style, it tied in the passage of time so effectively. I was surprised that the story took a magical realism route but it made it all the more better in my opinion! Just a truly unique way to demonstrate human vs nature and how the history of a place always leaves a mark on it and us, or can even haunt us at times.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
mscalls's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Sexual content, Dementia, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation
gena10's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Mental illness
cryptofauna's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
what was even the point of this book.
badly paced, no cohesive plot line or honestly any plot to begin with. had a few interesting moments in a couple of the short stories but it jumps around far too much to actually get properly aquatinted with some of the characters. (like i loved mary and alice because they were the most robust and had more time than anyone else to flesh out and have a compelling story i feel like)
i really don’t mind a book in this sort of format (one of my fav books of all time greenwoods is like this) but i feel like this did not do the multigenerational independent yet slightly connected stories well at all.
honestly should have dnfed it but i was really hoping it would get better or have some kind of ending that tied it all up. it felt like there was supposed to be come deep meaning that i clearly missed
had high hopes for this one and i don’t understand why everyone else in these reviews is obsessed with it
badly paced, no cohesive plot line or honestly any plot to begin with. had a few interesting moments in a couple of the short stories but it jumps around far too much to actually get properly aquatinted with some of the characters. (like i loved mary and alice because they were the most robust and had more time than anyone else to flesh out and have a compelling story i feel like)
i really don’t mind a book in this sort of format (one of my fav books of all time greenwoods is like this) but i feel like this did not do the multigenerational independent yet slightly connected stories well at all.
honestly should have dnfed it but i was really hoping it would get better or have some kind of ending that tied it all up. it felt like there was supposed to be come deep meaning that i clearly missed
had high hopes for this one and i don’t understand why everyone else in these reviews is obsessed with it
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Terminal illness
Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence