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A review by pineconek
Matrix by Lauren Groff
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I picked this up on a whim and had exactly zero idea what it was about. Turned out to be a book about a powerful female-separatist lesbian nun set in the dark ages in England, which was a wild concept from start to finish.
I can't figured out how I feel about this book. The narrative style is somewhat strange - theres major time skips that gloss over things that likely should have been explained more, and there is remarkably little dialogue. The reader is sometimes forcibly distanced from the character's inner worlds, but at other times is allowed to peak closely at intimate and gruesome details. And gruesome they are - this book is a tapestry of famine, death, disease, isolation, self flagellation, and graphic births (in the middle ages, I need to reiterate).
Recommended if you are looking to feel confusing feelings and are ready to be held at arm's length when reading about nuns of old. I think this is a 3.5 read, rounded down to 3 on GR, but I honestly have no idea. Reading this was weird, it made me feel weird, and I think that means that it's art.
I can't figured out how I feel about this book. The narrative style is somewhat strange - theres major time skips that gloss over things that likely should have been explained more, and there is remarkably little dialogue. The reader is sometimes forcibly distanced from the character's inner worlds, but at other times is allowed to peak closely at intimate and gruesome details. And gruesome they are - this book is a tapestry of famine, death, disease, isolation, self flagellation, and graphic births (in the middle ages, I need to reiterate).
Recommended if you are looking to feel confusing feelings and are ready to be held at arm's length when reading about nuns of old. I think this is a 3.5 read, rounded down to 3 on GR, but I honestly have no idea. Reading this was weird, it made me feel weird, and I think that means that it's art.