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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
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:
Yes
challenging
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
A strange book with unexpected twists. Reminicent of Nightbitch in its pondering of modern motherhood, of feeling 'other', and reclaiming some primal form of self. Ultimately unforgettable.
dark
medium-paced
The main character of this book spends her time with the worst people ever and then acts as if she’s above it all because “at least she’s better than them”. They’re still your friends! He’s still your husband! Caustic without offering any real commentary and based around a mystery that doesn’t start until 2/3 of the way in, this book is not very good. There were glimpses of some really interesting social analysis and even body horror, but instead we got 200 pages of the MC complaining about her dissatisfaction with motherhood and suburbia while doing nothing about it other than complain. The rapid-fire story beats at the end try to make up for this but because everything leading up to the “twist” happens in less than 50 pages, it feels contrived and unearned. Also, the aforementioned friends and husband do not change at all but the ending treats them as loving and supportive despite their “quirks”, which was very frustrating. I’ve heard the author’s first book is better so I may give it a shot, but this one was disappointing.
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC.
So this is marketed as a mystery/dark comedy. The dark comedy was there but the mystery felt very very half baked. Renata doesn’t even go missing until around 60% in and then the “mystery” is solved so quickly it doesn’t even really feel like she went missing at all. This is a literary fiction novel through and through and nothing can convince me otherwise. There is absolutely nothing “gothic” or “psychological” about this book.
That being said I did enjoy my time reading it and I liked a lot of the commentary and dialogue. Dani was an interesting main character to follow and most of the book was just her day to day life. If you enjoy books that are more commentary than plot then I think you will like this. I’m still not sure whether I liked the ending or not and whether the ending negated the “message” this book was trying to convey but overall it was a good time. It was released on 4th January so it’s already available.
So this is marketed as a mystery/dark comedy. The dark comedy was there but the mystery felt very very half baked. Renata doesn’t even go missing until around 60% in and then the “mystery” is solved so quickly it doesn’t even really feel like she went missing at all. This is a literary fiction novel through and through and nothing can convince me otherwise. There is absolutely nothing “gothic” or “psychological” about this book.
That being said I did enjoy my time reading it and I liked a lot of the commentary and dialogue. Dani was an interesting main character to follow and most of the book was just her day to day life. If you enjoy books that are more commentary than plot then I think you will like this. I’m still not sure whether I liked the ending or not and whether the ending negated the “message” this book was trying to convey but overall it was a good time. It was released on 4th January so it’s already available.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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
I really really really enjoyed this. I think it was so fun and silly but still so insightful on women’s labor and independence after motherhood.
Flewwww through the end because I needed to know what happened but still have no idea if i’m being gaslit or not. Lurving it
Flewwww through the end because I needed to know what happened but still have no idea if i’m being gaslit or not. Lurving it