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A review by amysutton
The Motherless Oven by Rob Davis
3.0
I'm still figuring out how I feel about this one, but it was a really cool universe.
I feel like the reader can either try to look deeper and find things to prove that the plot is really clever and mysterious, or they can take it at face value and see it as a confusing, meanderig story with a cliffhanger that makes the themes more important than the plot and characters. I feel like truly good books can be enjoyed in both ways - whether you're just reading them for what they are or whether you're looking for a deeper meaning. With this book, I felt like everything was going over my head or like I was trying too hard to make up an explanation for my lack of understanding.
*spoilers below*
So... It was a really creative universe filled with raining knives and trumpets that are dads and lions that guard schools. And I *think* there were certain quotes/ideas that the reader was supposed to pick up on to explain why the story ended and began the same way and why everything the children did seemed futile and controlled by fate. It was weird. It was unsettling. It didn't leave me fully satisfied.
107 - "It wasn't like our circular history books that begin where they end."
134 - "The way to free y'rself from any system of control is to do something useless. But do it as well as you can! That's really what does their heads in."
I feel like the reader can either try to look deeper and find things to prove that the plot is really clever and mysterious, or they can take it at face value and see it as a confusing, meanderig story with a cliffhanger that makes the themes more important than the plot and characters. I feel like truly good books can be enjoyed in both ways - whether you're just reading them for what they are or whether you're looking for a deeper meaning. With this book, I felt like everything was going over my head or like I was trying too hard to make up an explanation for my lack of understanding.
*spoilers below*
So... It was a really creative universe filled with raining knives and trumpets that are dads and lions that guard schools. And I *think* there were certain quotes/ideas that the reader was supposed to pick up on to explain why the story ended and began the same way and why everything the children did seemed futile and controlled by fate. It was weird. It was unsettling. It didn't leave me fully satisfied.
107 - "It wasn't like our circular history books that begin where they end."
134 - "The way to free y'rself from any system of control is to do something useless. But do it as well as you can! That's really what does their heads in."