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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Nominated for 2018 booker prize. I did enjoy the book, but I felt there was something lacking too - a few too many narratives that didn’t feel like that belonged together.
what a murky hauntingly beautiful twisted book. it explores the dark folds of fear and memory, like the rushing shadows of a river.
Haunting fluidly shifting prose gives way to a meandering tale that concludes in the most satisfactory way.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i am going to be thinking about this book for a very long time.
Weaving tragedy, fairy tale, and myth to cover a whole lot of thorny family ground. It is so easy to spoil this book in a review so I’ll just say well done brilliant effing book.
Weird and wild and probably not for everyone but this book blew my mind.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My rating for this book has fluctuated over the last few days as I came to the end. And I think 3 is about right. Because although I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the book, I also don’t dislike it.
The writing is beautiful - lyrical and poetic. It flows (like the river). The characters are extremely flawed which, in hindsight, I actually quite enjoyed. It’s very bleak - I had to take a break over Christmas because it was not something I was in the mood for then! - but I do sometimes enjoy a bleak book. And I’m glad to say I didn’t see the story turns coming, and they unfolded with some effect for me.
I found the structure and perspective confusing. It’s mostly told from one character’s pov, and jumps around in time and location a lot (it took me a while to click that the repeated chapter/section headers marked the different points in time). Gretel is recalling everything from memory (memory being a major theme), and you get the impression of everything blending and morphing together, just like old memories. It felt discombobulating, and I think was supposed to evoke how the characters were feeling and how they recalled things. So while the confusion frustrated me at the time, looking back it was actually very clever.
While I don’t know if I liked this book as such, I certainly respect it, and Daisy Johnson for writing it.
The writing is beautiful - lyrical and poetic. It flows (like the river). The characters are extremely flawed which, in hindsight, I actually quite enjoyed. It’s very bleak - I had to take a break over Christmas because it was not something I was in the mood for then! - but I do sometimes enjoy a bleak book. And I’m glad to say I didn’t see the story turns coming, and they unfolded with some effect for me.
I found the structure and perspective confusing. It’s mostly told from one character’s pov, and jumps around in time and location a lot (it took me a while to click that the repeated chapter/section headers marked the different points in time). Gretel is recalling everything from memory (memory being a major theme), and you get the impression of everything blending and morphing together, just like old memories. It felt discombobulating, and I think was supposed to evoke how the characters were feeling and how they recalled things. So while the confusion frustrated me at the time, looking back it was actually very clever.
While I don’t know if I liked this book as such, I certainly respect it, and Daisy Johnson for writing it.
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes