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wordsofclover 's review for:
From a Low and Quiet Sea
by Donal Ryan
I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars
This book centres around three different men who have all lost their way in life, and are recovering from heartbreak and loss. And how their lives are all connected in small ways.
This book was, as I predicted, beautiful written in raw, honest and sometimes disturbing ways by Donal Ryan. Ryan has a strange ability to really lay open the heart and souls of his characters, from their good bits to their flaws. This book in particular had some unlikable characters who often did or thought things that made me feel really uncomfortable. I actually felt a little bit confused about my feelings for the book until the last few pages, and the skill that Ryan was able to grab all these floating threads in the story and weave them together really quickly for an almost solved but still terribly open ending which is both genius, and infuriating.
I think Lampy may have been my favourite in the story but he’s probably who I was able to relate to the most - being a young 20-something Irish millennial with all of his future in front of him and no idea with what to do with it. I loved his sweet interactions with the people he drove around, and I felt uncomfortable with his anger issues and his actions and thoughts towards Chloe and Eleanor - the girl who broke his heart, and his rebound.
John was definitely the most unlikeable and whose story I couldn’t really understand or connect with until the very end. Some of the stuff he did in his life was really despicable but of course, we were suppose to feel that way. Ryan never pretends his characters are perfect, in fact they are perfectly imperfect and it’s one of his greatest strengths as a writing and I love it.
Farouk’s story was obviously the saddest but I definitely felt like I, as a reader, was held at a distance from him. I liked the glimpses of him at the end of the story, and it definitely made me feel better and hopeful for him.
While this book was not my favourite of Ryan’s so far, I was intrigued until the end, and I loved the journey.
3.5 stars
This book centres around three different men who have all lost their way in life, and are recovering from heartbreak and loss. And how their lives are all connected in small ways.
This book was, as I predicted, beautiful written in raw, honest and sometimes disturbing ways by Donal Ryan. Ryan has a strange ability to really lay open the heart and souls of his characters, from their good bits to their flaws. This book in particular had some unlikable characters who often did or thought things that made me feel really uncomfortable. I actually felt a little bit confused about my feelings for the book until the last few pages, and the skill that Ryan was able to grab all these floating threads in the story and weave them together really quickly for an almost solved but still terribly open ending which is both genius, and infuriating.
I think Lampy may have been my favourite in the story but he’s probably who I was able to relate to the most - being a young 20-something Irish millennial with all of his future in front of him and no idea with what to do with it. I loved his sweet interactions with the people he drove around, and I felt uncomfortable with his anger issues and his actions and thoughts towards Chloe and Eleanor - the girl who broke his heart, and his rebound.
John was definitely the most unlikeable and whose story I couldn’t really understand or connect with until the very end. Some of the stuff he did in his life was really despicable but of course, we were suppose to feel that way. Ryan never pretends his characters are perfect, in fact they are perfectly imperfect and it’s one of his greatest strengths as a writing and I love it.
Farouk’s story was obviously the saddest but I definitely felt like I, as a reader, was held at a distance from him. I liked the glimpses of him at the end of the story, and it definitely made me feel better and hopeful for him.
While this book was not my favourite of Ryan’s so far, I was intrigued until the end, and I loved the journey.