Reviews

The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart by Chesil

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kxiong5's review

4.0

As its title suggests, this book feels the way a mixed metaphor does: like the pieces aren’t fitting together, like time isn’t quite in clean order, like moments in time are experienced as if underwater or as if trying to parse the ringing in your ears. I think that this effect, while a little disorienting when reading, feels more capable of telling the story it wants to tell. And the way the characters around Jinhee develop very much feels like the way someone would see their friends—fear them, then idolize them, see them shining bright and clean and happy in relation to the self. Same for the way the world develops—the fullness with which Jinhee projects her own pain outwards / that that pain warps her vision so completely that it seems like the whole world is fucked. And who’s to say she’s wrong? She’s stuck in an intersection of life in which life can come out of nowhere and strike you in the face. How else does one come to grips with that?

All in all—this book doesn’t necessarily help you figure out what’s going on, but it at least shows you deeply and poetically what it’s like to be hurt by things you can’t put into words, and to be hurt by that inability to put it into words. I do wonder about how clean the ending is—is it really that you can just throw the words down on a page and suddenly find the clarity to stop running? Maybe. But I don’t think I quite believe that yet.

lakshmigandhi's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

natasha29singh's review

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2.0

The book is too short to do justice to the author's experiences. The plot is non-linear, it meanders considerably, and the book is over so soon you don’t fully understand or identify with her struggles. Still, the premise is unique, and it's decent for a coming-of-age story.