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jkclemen's review against another edition
2.0
Ya, the pacing really felt glacial, I would have fleeting moments of increased interest followed by vast stretches of uninteresting story.
I feel like the premise makes it very difficult to have better pacing due to it just being the women talking. Though even evaluating it as a philosophical text it still falls short cause the women can’t read anyway and develop there ideas based on random anecdotes and the religious passages they have memorized from their instruction from then men. Everything seems superficial and very jumbled.
Having the narrator be the man too was just odd he kept adding in all this lovey dovey feelings about the girls and his random thoughts. I get what they were trying to do at the end but even still it just feels so clunky through the main part of the story.
Would maybe not recommend unless the content really speaks to you :/
I feel like the premise makes it very difficult to have better pacing due to it just being the women talking. Though even evaluating it as a philosophical text it still falls short cause the women can’t read anyway and develop there ideas based on random anecdotes and the religious passages they have memorized from their instruction from then men. Everything seems superficial and very jumbled.
Having the narrator be the man too was just odd he kept adding in all this lovey dovey feelings about the girls and his random thoughts. I get what they were trying to do at the end but even still it just feels so clunky through the main part of the story.
Would maybe not recommend unless the content really speaks to you :/
gray8ful's review against another edition
2.0
The themes were interesting (freedom, forgiveness, love, faith) but the story telling just fell flat. It was so hard to get through. The women talked ad nauseam and seemed to change their minds every few minutes. It was also hard to keep track of who was who. The most interesting moments were the back stories that were told by the narrator (although why a book about women had to be told by a man is also another problem with the book). I've read All My Puny Sorrows by this author which was a hard read in a different way. I was disappointed with this book.
julesram's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
laurenisallbooked's review against another edition
3.0
Very unique format, but the whole time I felt like there was something missing. Still astounded to have learned this was based on a true story.
squidsbooks's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
wilycheese's review against another edition
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I'll be honest, I felt weird reading this book. Fictionlizing the brutality against women who are still alive without any note regarding if/how their consent to make this was secured made me feel like this "work of female imagination" left out the women it's about.
I read some of the original reporting on the topic and feel no less weird about it, mostly because the journalist who reported extensively from Bolivia says she has no idea if this kind of deliberate conversation ever actually happened. She hopes so, but not even she knows.
I'm not saying "don't read this book." Clearly I read it. But taking a step back after I finished and feeling weird about how mass rape and multiple generations of women brutalized by their own family can become Oscar bait in less than 10 years... that was a much bigger experince for me.
I read some of the original reporting on the topic and feel no less weird about it, mostly because the journalist who reported extensively from Bolivia says she has no idea if this kind of deliberate conversation ever actually happened. She hopes so, but not even she knows.
I'm not saying "don't read this book." Clearly I read it. But taking a step back after I finished and feeling weird about how mass rape and multiple generations of women brutalized by their own family can become Oscar bait in less than 10 years... that was a much bigger experince for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence
maceyshofroth's review against another edition
2.0
I think this book did not live up to its potential. It’s based on a horrifying, maddening true story that is really good raw material for a fictional narrative.
But the form just wasn’t the right choice. I think it was interesting to see August Epp as antithetical to the majority of the men in the colony, but not enough to warrant him as the narrator. His voice was boring to me and didn’t highlight the main conflict of the books as the way it could have.
As stated in a lot of reviews, they basically go over the same three ideas in 200 pages. The dialogue was overly expository and didn’t feel realistic at all.
I think this book would have been so much more powerful it was told from the narrative of one of the women - or hell, even one of the “Do Nothing women” - and let them explore their religious questions. I wanted action. I wanted the women to tell me their story.
But the form just wasn’t the right choice. I think it was interesting to see August Epp as antithetical to the majority of the men in the colony, but not enough to warrant him as the narrator. His voice was boring to me and didn’t highlight the main conflict of the books as the way it could have.
As stated in a lot of reviews, they basically go over the same three ideas in 200 pages. The dialogue was overly expository and didn’t feel realistic at all.
I think this book would have been so much more powerful it was told from the narrative of one of the women - or hell, even one of the “Do Nothing women” - and let them explore their religious questions. I wanted action. I wanted the women to tell me their story.
sarahevonne's review against another edition
3.0
While this is certainly an important book, and I wanted to love it, I found the framing device of a man writing the meeting minutes to be distracting and frustrating. For a book that is supposed to be about the experiences of girls and women, I found it to be a largely male-centered narrative because of the narrator, who goes off into parenthetical side notes far too often.
sofiephox's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
iamhausfrau's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0