Reviews

“The difficult thing is giving someone something she’s never had before.”

“Why is that difficult?”

“Because, no matter how beautiful it is, if she’s never seen beauty before, she won’t recognise it”

“Beneath the surface time took on a different dimension; the water’s inertia and gentle resistance slowed down earthly time and transformed it into underwater time, time that moved more slowly without the sounds from up above that could measure it out and give it definition. Nothing happened down there, nothing much at least; the shadow of a gleaming perch swimming past a little further on, particles descending in the serried rays of sunlight quivering through the water. What happened down there was slower than anything happening up on land. There was hardly any need to rise to the surface for air; when I was down there I didn’t need oxygen, or food, or love. ”

I kept thinking about it the whole week. It has this haunting quality about it that keeps you thinking, keeps you wanting and reading more.

It is a very raw and sad book about the reality of many things in life. About someone who gave up. Just gave up.

And out of the snippets and flashbacks, the part about Eskil broke my heart the most.

“Since that time I have always had his little mouth against my ear, I still listen for those breaths that never come. ”

worlds_between_the_sheets's review against another edition

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4.0

Kirjan asetelma oli todella erilainen: murhattu prostituoitu ja narkkari Inni katselee elämäänsä taakse päin, valintojaan, huumeiden valitsemista kaiken yli... ja hänelle rakkaiden ihmisten elämän jatkumista murhan jälkeen. Inni palaa myös murhaan - kuristamiseen, ruumiin paloitteluun, pään irroittamiseen - usein. Ne kohtaukset oli kyllä mulle aika vaikeita lukea, vaikka ihan Pienen elämän ranteet-auki-oksennus-kurkussa-fiilikseen en vielä ”päässyt”.

Kirja on synkkä ja toivoton. Mutta hyvin kirjoitettu. Rakenne oli mulle kuitenkin liian pirstaleinen, vaikka se sopikin hyvin kirjaan ja kuvasti ajatuksenjuoksun poukkoilua. Tykkään itse kuitenkin enemmän tarinoista (ajassa liikkuminen ei haittaa, mutta tykkään jotenkin kokonaisemmasta kokonaisuudesta). Vaikuttavuudesta ja kielestä kuitenkin neljä tähteä.

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

4.25

The Antarctica of Love is the story of Inni, a young Swedish woman who suffered from drug addiction, sometimes worked as a prostitute, and was murdered and gruesomely dismembered. This was a beautifully written story - although some scenes were very ugly. Inni related fragments from her life and death from the afterlife where she manages to check in on people who were important to her, chiefly her mother, husband and two children one of whom was taken from them, the other of whom they voluntraily surrendered. I found this to be both poignant and heartbreaking, especially the cycle of abuse and neglect and how she felt she had nothing to offer a child and that she didn’t care if she lived or died.

Content Warnings

parisakamali's review against another edition

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2.0

the prose is absolutely stunning and the themes are also excellent. unfortunately, that is all there is for the book. i was thoroughly bored most of the time, though i stayed for the writing.

ramona_quimby's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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