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A review by laurel00
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
"[He] gazed at me with a love so infinite it presented as a mad and indecipherable pattern. It was overwhelming and violent in its hunger. And even now it remains hard for me to determine how I feel about the men who had sprung from me—what to do with my deep hatred, and my bottomless love, for them."
I won't even attempt to list all of the themes that Jimenez expertly wrote about and wove together in this book, because I could never truly do his craft the justice it deserves.
I have a difficult time fully concentrating on every detail of a high fantasy novel—which probably explains why I so often get slightly lost in the world building. But my brain always wants to focus more on the plot and the characters, than the details of their environment or all the minute intricacies of the politics that are at the center of their story. However, in this book, Jimenez used one of the most unique narrative styles I have ever come across in all of the novels I've read. This forced me to pay close attention to every single word on every single page, and I admit that I was concerned at first. I worried this book would be difficult for me to fully engage with, and adding on the fact that it is more than 500 pages, I was sure I would need a month to get through it.
In the end, I loved every moment of this. Even in a considerably busy week, I found myself constantly reaching out to it, looking for moments of quiet and solitude to be able to read another 30 pages whenever I could. As daunting as the book seemed to me, it ended up being an amazing reading experience.
All the characters are so incredibly fascinating, and I became so entranced with the ways in which each of their lived experiences lead them to be the person they were at that moment. Jimenez is such a stellar author, and explores every single aspect of the human condition through these characters, which makes it all a beautiful, emotionally devastating read.
I cannot recommend this enough, it is so worth all the time and effort you have to put into it as a reader, because you are rewarded every 20 pages or so, with the feeling that you suddenly understand just a bit more about what it truly means to be human and what it means to love.
I won't even attempt to list all of the themes that Jimenez expertly wrote about and wove together in this book, because I could never truly do his craft the justice it deserves.
I have a difficult time fully concentrating on every detail of a high fantasy novel—which probably explains why I so often get slightly lost in the world building. But my brain always wants to focus more on the plot and the characters, than the details of their environment or all the minute intricacies of the politics that are at the center of their story. However, in this book, Jimenez used one of the most unique narrative styles I have ever come across in all of the novels I've read. This forced me to pay close attention to every single word on every single page, and I admit that I was concerned at first. I worried this book would be difficult for me to fully engage with, and adding on the fact that it is more than 500 pages, I was sure I would need a month to get through it.
In the end, I loved every moment of this. Even in a considerably busy week, I found myself constantly reaching out to it, looking for moments of quiet and solitude to be able to read another 30 pages whenever I could. As daunting as the book seemed to me, it ended up being an amazing reading experience.
All the characters are so incredibly fascinating, and I became so entranced with the ways in which each of their lived experiences lead them to be the person they were at that moment. Jimenez is such a stellar author, and explores every single aspect of the human condition through these characters, which makes it all a beautiful, emotionally devastating read.
I cannot recommend this enough, it is so worth all the time and effort you have to put into it as a reader, because you are rewarded every 20 pages or so, with the feeling that you suddenly understand just a bit more about what it truly means to be human and what it means to love.