Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Le Dieu des Bois by Liz Moore

268 reviews

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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: Complicated

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

As the book covers two disappearances across a decade I can understand why different chapters focus on different time periods. However, adding the 1st person perspective from different characters on top of that meant it was sometimes really hard to follow what was going on. Particularly as there was a large cast of characters.

Once I had got a grip of the characters and the timeline I enjoyed the book, with the last hour and a half being particularly good.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous mysterious 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

The book takes a little while to get going, stick with it! Once you’re in, it’s a real page turner and something you’ll want to devour in days or even hours! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character

I was very engrossed in this book and polished it off quickly while on vacation. Compelling story and characters, but there was a lot of meandering and the transitions between chapters/points of view felt rough at times. Didn't keep me from being glued to the book, but had me retracing and reviewing what I had read at several points. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense slow-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: Complicated

I’m not entirely sure why or how this book has won awards like Goodreads choice award - if anything, it should have won an award for being the most mediocre mystery novel I’ve read to date. There’s no other way for me to describe this story other than just plain messy. It isn’t mystery, it isn’t crime, it isn’t thriller, it isn’t literary fiction. It’s all of these genres hastily slapped together with eight narrators and a timeline of nearly fifteen years. There’s not a single character that has a shred of dimension, interest, or engagement. The men are rich, powerful, abusive, and addictive, or just bland. The women are spineless, frail, and hopelessly dependent upon men even as they bring about nothing but their downfall. The investigators are just cartoon sketches of your typical cops - a characterization lifted on any number of book or television cop dramas. 

There’s so much going on in this book that it eventually becomes dry, noisy, and cantankerous. I figured out what happened to both children by about half way into the novel - and endured the mind numbing timeline jumps and character narrations. Along the way, we get this slip shot attempt to make a commentary on the lives of the rich and powerful families of upstate New York, rights to hereditary land (which I thought would be a discussion about stealing native land, and yet it was not), and how the rich stay rich and are corrupt to to their core. I don’t need a book to tell me that, especially in this patchwork quilt of drama. 

I really ought to take this book as my sign to not read any more book recommendations I get from social media - I’m always left a little worse for wear after reading them. The only reason I gave this book 3 stars was because in spite of this novel being abominably dry, I was still engaged enough to have to think about the answers to the crimes in this book - albeit it took me half of the novel to figure it out, but hey, it was entertaining while it lasted. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous mysterious 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious reflective sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings