Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-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
dark
mysterious
reflective
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:
Complicated
I think if I'd known how slow-paced and introspective this is, I would have not started, thinking that this would never work for me. And yet, it did. The world building, the characters, somehow it all paid off. The ending was too abrupt, but other than that, I really enjoyed this.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i’m struggling to know how to rate this one. i enjoyed the apocalyptic overtone and setting, and i think armfield does a really great job of conveying the reality of that kind of dread and doom in a very palpable way. i think armfield also has a knack for creating complex and heartbreakingly human characters, and i felt like she portrayed a lot of the legitimate ache and longing that can exist in families, specifically siblings, that have navigated traumas in similar yet unique ways. i felt a bit put off by the pacing of this text, though; it has a very slow build up and a rapid, erratic ending. while i am fairly content with the mystery of the ending itself, it all just happened really fast. there is a quote from the text that inquires how much the sisters can blame their father for how they have come to be, and how much of how they have come to be is their own responsibility; i think that also reflects in the text’s commentary on climate change, and the human experience of not wanting to have to reap the suffering of choices perhaps we ourselves had no say in, but ultimately have to take initiative on in order to sustain ourselves and our planet.
One narrator for multiple perspectives and no voice or tone changes was too much
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Um, what the fuck. Julia Armfield what are you doing to me?! What was that ending oh my god. I think I loved the book and hated the ending.
So both moms were in a suicide cult and Agnes was supposed to be offered up to them for some reason?
You know what it really is a horror book.
At the end I thought they might be trying to cut gills into people but I don't think that was it.
And now of all things I have to read King Lear?!?
Agnes being watched and being afraid of eyes on her and then turning out to be CORRECT is so creepy.
You know what it really is a horror book.
And now of all things I have to read King Lear?!?
Exhausting, to be so busy and so bored with no time left for either.
The truth is not that Jude is calm to the exclusion of all problems but rather calm in the face of them, calm as a method of attack.
Irene shakes her head; thinks, for an instant, of the first time she told Jude she loved them, the moment that marked the end of waiting, of hanging around wondering what the big event of her life might be.
An unspoken thought between them: the essential fact of Irene as a creature akin to a hermit crab, whose outer shell seems ostensibly tough but is only the home to a very soft animal, and the secondary fact of Jude as the only person who really knows this.
... everything related to the organization of a funeral seems precision-tooled to make a person feel studded with tiny little pieces of glass.
Death, after all, puts an end to the argument, but it also prolongs the silence for good.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I so wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't connect with it. There were places where the writing was beautiful and the author's craft was so evident, but as a whole I just felt that it just didn't hold together. I wasn't quite sure what it was trying to do. There were King Lear allusions, but it never quite got there. It was clearly a dystopian novel, but it lacked the clarity to place this future in any timeline that grounded it. I felt like it was continually out of focus. And maybe that was the point, but if that's the case, than it just wasn't my cup of tea.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol