3.95 AVERAGE

funny reflective fast-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
challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
sofiaohman's profile picture

sofiaohman's review

3.0
funny reflective medium-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
hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A
emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I enjoyed the evocative nature of the story, long, lazy summer days with barely suppressed sexual tensions. A fun read, with some lovely writing. Perhaps didn’t explore the characters as deeply as I would have liked, but that would need a longer book.
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
funny reflective medium-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

Okay. This book is for all the pretentious ex-academics who pretend not to be pretentious but secretly are just so pretentious (i.e., me). At first the prose and writing style bothered me because it was pretentious and I felt myself chafing against it, but as I continued reading, I realized this book was actually just written for me. 

This novel tells the story of a week in the lives of six university friends and their significant others as they meet up in a secluded forest cabin, complete with an idyllic lake, a fantastical garden grove, and the constant romanticizing of their environment. The conversations and debates the characters have are such that in the deepest parts of my soul, I wish I could be party to. 

And while on the subject of the darkest parts of my psyche, I truly and sincerely hate how deeply I related to Sylvia. I want to bse represented in literature quite frankly until the worst and most embarrassing parts of myself are represented in literature. 

That all being said, I give this book a very easy 5-star rating.