Review by slintangel - My Darling Dreadful Thing

slintangel 's review for:

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

2.0

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

not to my taste, unfortunately. the dialogue felt inconsistent and filled with what i perceived as anachronisms (see: constant repetition of "shan't" followed by phrases like "we're in deep fucking trouble" or "no you don't"). the placement of the story in the 50s (i believe) felt odd and connected to no context at the time which was disappointing to me – the decay of the rosentuin could have spoken to deeper themes than it did and a connection to the outside world would have been interesting.

roos was. well. kind of annoying to me, or at least the way her thoughts were written was. the sister felt forcefully and cartoonishly evil to the point where i couldn't figure out why i had to dislike her at first other than the mandatory "she gave me a bad vibe" kind of description her introduction has. agnes was... she was, i mean she existed?

at the same time i often felt like the author thought i was stupid? maybe that's harsh to say but so often would the information we were learning get repeated that i could not bear it anymore. similarly, in later stages the plot felt like it was being spoonfed to me for the exact same reason. yes, yes, yes, unreliable narrator but everyone answers her questions so truthfully and has no problem admitting to their motives and feelings almost instantly, in huge paragraphs. the premise was interesting but the characters often felt juvenile.

also pisses me off so bad that roos swears up and down that agnes is raising money for the house when she's away from them and then it turns out to be completely true, almost copy-pasted prediction sort of true. god fucking forbid characters are ever wrong or unlikeable or selfish.

Content Warnings