A review by elatedbooks
Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“To need meant to be vulnerable. It was one of the scariest things I could imagine. Needing anything meant you were open to invasion. It meant you had no control of yourself.”

This had a really cracking start & it’s  interesting that she has a short story collection because to me the prologue very much reads like a short story. After that though I kinda lost interest a bit which can maybe be attributed to the fact I often get that way with literary books like really interesting set up but then that’s kinda the peak moment & nothing else gets more exciting. 

So I would be intrigued to read her short story collection because I think she writes very well it’s just that over the span of a novel her momentum falls a bit & a couple of plot points aren’t executed as well as they could be. 

Brynn is so central to the book (with the flashbacks etc) that I kept expecting something more to come of her as it made the book feel quite unresolved at the end. I know the MC & Milo kinda talk about it & she starts moving on in her love life but i feel like it needed more resolution even just in her internal monologue. 

Plus Bastien is just a super confusing character ??? Like what is going on with him ??  He made me super confused about the messaging of this book & I feel like he’s another loose end that needed a bit more tying up. 

Finally a fun point - Milo reminded me of Kurtan from this country so he was all I was picturing whenever Milo said anything.

“Better to need nothing; nothing never hurt you when it left.”
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