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A review by rose_reads33
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor
3.0
Overall I found this book quite disappointing. I loved the author’s other books so I was ready to love this one too.
I thought it was going to be more about the Arctic but it wasn’t. And the whole middle section just felt like boring filler to me, as if we were building to this big reveal that never came. It felt like an odd setup bc it was massively trying to build to a reveal of the red plane and something you didn’t know. And I wish it hadn’t bc that took away from the actual premise of the book, in a way. And then when it finally got to its reveal, it didn’t reveal anything. But by then I’d missed the middle chunk feeling like we were going somewhere else. I think without that, it could have been more of a focus on people and stroke etc.
I also struggled with the character development, or lack of. Everyone and everything was a bit cliche and lacked depth. Who are these people and how do they think or feel? There was so much unsaid, and I think it was trying to describe circumstance and place over individuals, which sometimes can really work in a book, but for me this one didn’t. I didn’t really care about the characters, it felt like looking through a window at a sad and helpless scene and feeling upset, but not for the people, for the situation, for the bigger picture of how these things happen and that people have to live in these lives.
It didn’t help that i find this subject matter of stroke/loss of language/independence (that I wasn’t prepared for bc I don’t read backs of books) particularly sad and painful.
I thought it was going to be more about the Arctic but it wasn’t. And the whole middle section just felt like boring filler to me, as if we were building to this big reveal that never came. It felt like an odd setup bc it was massively trying to build to a reveal of the red plane and something you didn’t know. And I wish it hadn’t bc that took away from the actual premise of the book, in a way. And then when it finally got to its reveal, it didn’t reveal anything. But by then I’d missed the middle chunk feeling like we were going somewhere else. I think without that, it could have been more of a focus on people and stroke etc.
I also struggled with the character development, or lack of. Everyone and everything was a bit cliche and lacked depth. Who are these people and how do they think or feel? There was so much unsaid, and I think it was trying to describe circumstance and place over individuals, which sometimes can really work in a book, but for me this one didn’t. I didn’t really care about the characters, it felt like looking through a window at a sad and helpless scene and feeling upset, but not for the people, for the situation, for the bigger picture of how these things happen and that people have to live in these lives.
It didn’t help that i find this subject matter of stroke/loss of language/independence (that I wasn’t prepared for bc I don’t read backs of books) particularly sad and painful.