Review by logsbooklog - Notes on an Execution

logsbooklog 's review for:

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

4.5

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this was fantastic; it was nauseating, but has such a powerful core to it. it acts as a refutation towards the attention economy. an ode to the mundanity, and to the people that are robbed of that mundanity. the writing of the 3 core women is near-flawless, and their endings are equal parts satisfying and harrowing. my one gripe with the book actually ends up being ansel himself. while his portions of the book are excellent, his characterization ends up a bit flat for me; weirdly, the closest comparison i can draw to this book is bojack horseman, stories of women harmed by a powerful man and having their stories subsumed by them. ansel, though, does not get the depth that bojack does, certainly at least in part intentionally since so much of the book contends with the idea that who he could have been is nothing in the wake of what the women he killed could have been. however, in the absence of his characterization, he ends up being a stereotype in his own right: the unremarkable sociopath. this is a fair assessment of him, but it made questions in the book of how we integrate people who don’t experience love or care for others into society ring hollow when the only example they have is intentionally flat. this is ultimately a minor gripe though, this is a dense complicated book that will stick with me forever and has just so much to mull on.

Content Warnings