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rach_lle's review against another edition
2.75
Interesting supernatural element, felt slightly underdeveloped though. You feel like you are descending into madness with the 1st person pov. Only the main character is somewhat fleshed out, no one else really
morganpal16's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
loved the concept, didn’t love the pacing as much; wasn’t very strong plot-wise
sydinreallife's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my, I'm speechless. What did I just read?
This book was fantastic, and apparently it's predecessor Bunny is even better. Definitely adding that to my TBR.
Miranda is a drama professor at a small community college who suffers from chronic pain. Her friends and family have grown tired of her constant complaining about her leg... and her hip. Strange things keep happening, and it's hard for Miranda (or us) to delineate real from "dream" as she slips further and further into the thick preparing for the school play, dealing with concerned colleagues and suspicious students, and trying to cope with her health (both physical and mental).
Wow.. I can't even give this book an accurate summary. Just read it! Read it now.
This book was fantastic, and apparently it's predecessor Bunny is even better. Definitely adding that to my TBR.
Miranda is a drama professor at a small community college who suffers from chronic pain. Her friends and family have grown tired of her constant complaining about her leg... and her hip. Strange things keep happening, and it's hard for Miranda (or us) to delineate real from "dream" as she slips further and further into the thick preparing for the school play, dealing with concerned colleagues and suspicious students, and trying to cope with her health (both physical and mental).
Wow.. I can't even give this book an accurate summary. Just read it! Read it now.
polyphonic_reads's review against another edition
dark
funny
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
4.25
comeonaileenwuornos's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
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
4.5
lydiaaaa34's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
redrabbit0's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mtstellens's review against another edition
3.0
A really interesting narrative about the effects of chronic pain. Miranda is an ex-actor that is now a theater director at a local community college. Her marriage and acting career ended when she fell off the stage at one of her performances, causing her to need surgery, PT, and medication. This still didn’t really help, she is still in constant pain and she uses copious amounts of medication and alcohol to cope. This doest seem to be working as she still is in pain to the point where she is missing work. Miranda wants this years school play to be All’s Well, but the students have rebelled and asked to do Macbeth. Miranda is losing it, she is losing her friends, her PT think that she is lying about her pain, she is not really present, she keeps calling her ex husband who is now remarried. She joins her friend and co director after work one day after work and seems to enter a liminal space where she is given a golden liquid by three mysterious men who quote Shakespeare and encourage her to make the students do All’s Well. Miranda wakes up feeling much better, but she is still hyper alert of her pain. She goes into work and tells the students that they will be doing All’s Well. One of the students, Briana, that led the mutiny tries to disagree again but Miranda touches her, seemingly transferring some of her pain to her. Miranda’s life begins to rapidly improve, she begins dating the set designer, she is not in any pain, Briana is gone and her protege, Ellie, is the lead in the play. THe sick student is having all of the same symptoms as her, and is convinced that Miranda cursed her somehow. She calls a meeting with the dean, her parents and the enemies she has accumulated. THe student accuses Miranda of witchcraft, everyone seems uncomfortable with her pain and does not believe her, and Miranda plays into that. Miranda does let her play an old crone in the show, but doubts that she can actually act well. Miranda continues her mania, also spreading her pain to her PT and one of her friends/colleagues. Things continue to get more and more dream-like as she begins to see how dark things have gotten as the play nears. Finally the night of the play she seems to have lost it, as her play is going on in one room she is acting in her own play in the other theater. She sees her ex-husband and the three men from the bar, she has a child in this dream named the same as Ellie. She turns away from the dream and the life that she wanted, realizing that she might have killed her friend. She returns to the other theater to a standing ovation, the three men who were in the audience have left, but everyone seems happy and her friend is there. She seems to be seeing things a bit more clearly now. The man she is dating no longer looks like her husband, she sees her Ellie and Briana interacting as friends and Briana seems to have done an amazing job, using her pain as inspiration. However, Miranda falls off the stage mirroring her fall that put her in so much pain in the first place. As she is lying on the ground she asks someone what the man thought of her play and they said that they didn’t like it, making it seem like they would be back.
Miranda is such an interesting character. Much like all of Mona Awad’s protagonists, I wouldn’t say that she is likable, but she is certainly complex. Her pain, not believed by anyone, especially not the men in charge, her therapist, her dean etc. is always with her. The second that it is gone she distrusts it, acting like it could come back at any second, when she starts to trust that it is actually gone she goes absolutely manic, making the students do long outside acting sessions, dating and having sex with abandon, and seeing anyone that seems concerned with her new behavior as wanting her to be in pain again. At no point, either before or after her pain, does it seem like she is good at her job. While she is in pain she seems unable to be present in any way, physically or mentally, when it is gone it is the same except that she is consumed by her new abilities and relationship. She is not sympathetic at all to Briana, even though she should know more than anyone that she is not faking and how debilitating what is happening is. She seems to not really accept that the pain was from her for most of the book until she has done it to multiple people, like Briana was a totally separate thing at times, a coincidence. Ellie is an interesting character because Miranda seems to see a lot in her and obviously thinks of her as a surrogate daughter of sorts to the point where she cannot see that Ellie has her own life and feelings outside of what Miranda puts on her. I think that I would have gotten a lot more out of this book had I read more Shakespeare, I think that I missed a lot of references that could have helped me understand the ending better.
Miranda is such an interesting character. Much like all of Mona Awad’s protagonists, I wouldn’t say that she is likable, but she is certainly complex. Her pain, not believed by anyone, especially not the men in charge, her therapist, her dean etc. is always with her. The second that it is gone she distrusts it, acting like it could come back at any second, when she starts to trust that it is actually gone she goes absolutely manic, making the students do long outside acting sessions, dating and having sex with abandon, and seeing anyone that seems concerned with her new behavior as wanting her to be in pain again. At no point, either before or after her pain, does it seem like she is good at her job. While she is in pain she seems unable to be present in any way, physically or mentally, when it is gone it is the same except that she is consumed by her new abilities and relationship. She is not sympathetic at all to Briana, even though she should know more than anyone that she is not faking and how debilitating what is happening is. She seems to not really accept that the pain was from her for most of the book until she has done it to multiple people, like Briana was a totally separate thing at times, a coincidence. Ellie is an interesting character because Miranda seems to see a lot in her and obviously thinks of her as a surrogate daughter of sorts to the point where she cannot see that Ellie has her own life and feelings outside of what Miranda puts on her. I think that I would have gotten a lot more out of this book had I read more Shakespeare, I think that I missed a lot of references that could have helped me understand the ending better.
leighlin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75