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(I decided on 3 stars, more like 3.5 though)
I am very conflicted on this book and what to say about it...first off, the writing style is gorgeous. It reminds me of Virginia Woolf at many points with its extremely evocative, stream-of-consciousness qualities. While this *is* a novella with only 95 pages in the German version, it certainly isn't the kind of book you just consume over the course of an hour or even a day.
Reason 1: the aforementioned, rich prose. It is so powerful that you (or at least that was my impression) simply only can take *so much* of it in one sitting before getting oversaturated.
Reason 2: the subject matter. Maybe it is me coming at this from a "modern" standpoint but I hughly disagree that this is a romance.
This is a story of a relationship, if you can even call it that, between a 27-year old man and a 15-year old girl. Now I now that 15-year olds aren't exactly children anymore but they also aren't grown-ups, and still in development both physically and mentally. They just arent't on the same level as 27 year old adults...so their relationship made me extremely uncomfortable to read about.
Especially since the female lead (there are no names mentioned throughout for anyone) is at multiple points referred to as a child or having "a child's body". There is even a line going like (my own translation from German) "he took her as he would have taken his own child", and yes, this is in a sexual context.
I could go into "psycho-analysis" of why FL would be tempted to enter this relationship - the family dynamics described her certainly would offer a lot of explanation. As a non-professional, I will not do that though.
Maybe the most disturbing factor in here is the relationship being portrayed as completely normal and consensual. At no point in the novella is it even doubted or even hinted at being something wrong. (Okay, there *are*one or two lines about Male Lead being ashamed at being seen with her or conflicted but that's a miniscule, almost overlooked part.)
In conclusion - it is not a "bad" book at all but I am not sure if I would recommend it to anyone.
I am very conflicted on this book and what to say about it...first off, the writing style is gorgeous. It reminds me of Virginia Woolf at many points with its extremely evocative, stream-of-consciousness qualities. While this *is* a novella with only 95 pages in the German version, it certainly isn't the kind of book you just consume over the course of an hour or even a day.
Reason 1: the aforementioned, rich prose. It is so powerful that you (or at least that was my impression) simply only can take *so much* of it in one sitting before getting oversaturated.
Reason 2: the subject matter. Maybe it is me coming at this from a "modern" standpoint but I hughly disagree that this is a romance.
This is a story of a relationship, if you can even call it that, between a 27-year old man and a 15-year old girl. Now I now that 15-year olds aren't exactly children anymore but they also aren't grown-ups, and still in development both physically and mentally. They just arent't on the same level as 27 year old adults...so their relationship made me extremely uncomfortable to read about.
Especially since the female lead (there are no names mentioned throughout for anyone) is at multiple points referred to as a child or having "a child's body". There is even a line going like (my own translation from German) "he took her as he would have taken his own child", and yes, this is in a sexual context.
I could go into "psycho-analysis" of why FL would be tempted to enter this relationship - the family dynamics described her certainly would offer a lot of explanation. As a non-professional, I will not do that though.
Maybe the most disturbing factor in here is the relationship being portrayed as completely normal and consensual. At no point in the novella is it even doubted or even hinted at being something wrong. (Okay, there *are*one or two lines about Male Lead being ashamed at being seen with her or conflicted but that's a miniscule, almost overlooked part.)
In conclusion - it is not a "bad" book at all but I am not sure if I would recommend it to anyone.