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A review by dani005
Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn
4.0
”It wasn’t Sadie or society or other people that held him back. It was himself. His own guilty conscience.”
There's a fine line between accepting guilt out of compassion and suppressing compassion for the effort of staying any consequential feelings of guilt.
Stephanie Kuehn has an amazing talent for writing. Not only does she have a way of orchestrating her sentences with effortless ease, but she always has such dynamic characters that have such developed histories and such diverse direction with which to head in throughout the story. By this I mean that there's always some mysterious circumstance that has occurred in her character's past. It can be a seemingly small incident that affects the character and yet has such huge blown effects as of a result, propelling the character to behave in sometimes dark and erratic ways afterwards. It creates a riveting story as you delve deeper into the folds of each of her character's minds, discovering how their brains function and how they process their daily lives in such unique ways from my own.
It broadens my understanding of other people, and the way that we all think and understand things differently as different moralities and emotions dictate the actions and behaviours in our lives. Kuehn is a master at getting into her character's minds. For that talent alone I would love to give this book five stars.
Kuehn didn't disappoint with the characters of this book. In fact, this book dealt with three individual characters, all of whom were starkly unique from one another. It was a terrific feat, delving seamlessly into the minds of three separate teens affected by three entirely different separate mindsets. The building tension between these three different individuals created an effect of suspense that I have come to absolutely adore in Kuehn's books.
My only problem, was that the building tension just kind of lagged and then suddenly dropped off by the irresolute ending. The hidden pasts of these characters seemed not as defining as they seemed to be made out to be. In general terms, I found the plot of this story was slightly lacking, there wasn't an overall drive to bring this story to a climax. I love her writing and the ideas that she addresses in this book, and therefore this one drawback of a lacking plotline was the reason for the one star being knocked off.
That being said, there was one point that Kuehn brought up in this story that entirely intrigued me.
Sadie, the main female protagonist contemplates how within her mindset, she believes there to be two different types of people in this world. Those who are driven to act out of compassion; thus making others happy in the effect of making themselves happy, or those who know they should react out of compassion but who look for any excuse not too, simply because they are not made happy themselves as a result of other people's happiness.
It presented a new perspective. I'd always grown up, having the need for empathy instilled in me by my parents. Thinking of the concerns of others has become second nature to me, as easy as blinking when dust gets caught in my eye. Its a reaction that is instinctive; an impulse. However, for other people, this may not be the case. Empathy may be something that is a conscious effort, one which they may not always concern themselves in making. Does this make them bad people, or does it simply mean they are wired differently and I simply have to accept that as a part of who they are, just as much as being an introvert or an extrovert is wired into a person's personality as they grow up.
Kuehn is an exceptional writer, who does a fantastic job of effortlessly integrating controversial subjects into her stories. Every book she has written has been one of my favourites and I look forward to her next one.
There's a fine line between accepting guilt out of compassion and suppressing compassion for the effort of staying any consequential feelings of guilt.
Stephanie Kuehn has an amazing talent for writing. Not only does she have a way of orchestrating her sentences with effortless ease, but she always has such dynamic characters that have such developed histories and such diverse direction with which to head in throughout the story. By this I mean that there's always some mysterious circumstance that has occurred in her character's past. It can be a seemingly small incident that affects the character and yet has such huge blown effects as of a result, propelling the character to behave in sometimes dark and erratic ways afterwards. It creates a riveting story as you delve deeper into the folds of each of her character's minds, discovering how their brains function and how they process their daily lives in such unique ways from my own.
It broadens my understanding of other people, and the way that we all think and understand things differently as different moralities and emotions dictate the actions and behaviours in our lives. Kuehn is a master at getting into her character's minds. For that talent alone I would love to give this book five stars.
Kuehn didn't disappoint with the characters of this book. In fact, this book dealt with three individual characters, all of whom were starkly unique from one another. It was a terrific feat, delving seamlessly into the minds of three separate teens affected by three entirely different separate mindsets. The building tension between these three different individuals created an effect of suspense that I have come to absolutely adore in Kuehn's books.
My only problem, was that the building tension just kind of lagged and then suddenly dropped off by the irresolute ending. The hidden pasts of these characters seemed not as defining as they seemed to be made out to be. In general terms, I found the plot of this story was slightly lacking, there wasn't an overall drive to bring this story to a climax. I love her writing and the ideas that she addresses in this book, and therefore this one drawback of a lacking plotline was the reason for the one star being knocked off.
That being said, there was one point that Kuehn brought up in this story that entirely intrigued me.
Sadie, the main female protagonist contemplates how within her mindset, she believes there to be two different types of people in this world. Those who are driven to act out of compassion; thus making others happy in the effect of making themselves happy, or those who know they should react out of compassion but who look for any excuse not too, simply because they are not made happy themselves as a result of other people's happiness.
It presented a new perspective. I'd always grown up, having the need for empathy instilled in me by my parents. Thinking of the concerns of others has become second nature to me, as easy as blinking when dust gets caught in my eye. Its a reaction that is instinctive; an impulse. However, for other people, this may not be the case. Empathy may be something that is a conscious effort, one which they may not always concern themselves in making. Does this make them bad people, or does it simply mean they are wired differently and I simply have to accept that as a part of who they are, just as much as being an introvert or an extrovert is wired into a person's personality as they grow up.
Kuehn is an exceptional writer, who does a fantastic job of effortlessly integrating controversial subjects into her stories. Every book she has written has been one of my favourites and I look forward to her next one.