2.75k reviews for:

Creation Lake

Rachel Kushner

3.45 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging funny informative mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Entertaining, discursive, original.

What was the point of this?

Insufferable main character. Incomprehensible themes. 

2024 Booker long list must’ve been especially long this year
medium-paced
adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked it, I just had a hard time getting into it every time I picked it up. Something about the prose kept me at arms length.
dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous funny lighthearted medium-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: Yes

On the surface Creation Lake is about an agent hired to infiltrate environmentalist groups and incite them to violence (the first-person narrator), but what is the deeper theme? The insidious rapacity of patriarchy and capitalism? What Neanderthals can teach us about survival in the modern world? Trying to navigate the crazy culture and amazing universe we live in? I couldn’t answer this question, and neither could my book club, but we all agreed it was an interesting, intellectually stimulating read. Maybe that’s the best you can hope for with a narrator who betrays people for a living.