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dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
What should I say about this book? It's a mystery and thriller, genres I'm not too used to reading, but I picked up the book from a used-book store bc I was excited to read something by a southeast asian author. I liked the creativity of a setting where humans can only remember one or two days, and really appreciated the "scientific" papers that backed it up (altho the reader still had to put in work to suspend disbelief for the worldbuilding to succeed). I also liked the different narratives and diary entries split by articles and papers and book/diary quotes.
Unfortunately, the writing style was not something I was a fan of. It was written in the same way that Hans describes Mark's writing, using an excess of flowery words. It also used a lot of dramatic sentence structure over and over again, something I'm more than familiar with as being overly present in my own old writing. It's something that gets old real fast.
In terms of mystery, I think it did okay. I remember halfway through the book, I'd come to a fairly hard conclusion as to who the culprit was (it felt like the mystery had already solved itself) and I worried that the end half of the book would only be unnecessary filler. However, there were a couple of light twists at the end that did not actually disappoint me. Although I'm still confused by the first page in Chapter Zero where she writes "your own mug shot" tho......
What was actually disappointing was the handling of characters and their relationships. The "uppity hoity-toity" way that Sophia wrote was one thing, but the entirety of Mark looking down on Claire for 20yrs of marriage, his resultant cheating, and not to mention predatory behaviour (as a 26yo preying on a 19yo barely adult)??? And never is he truly punished for any of it?? Claire even stays with him in the end??? And that's after she deems his cheating as a result of her failing as a wife to keep her husband by her side too. Needless to say, the outlook of women and their perceived roles left a nasty taste in my mouth.
Unfortunately, the writing style was not something I was a fan of. It was written in the same way that Hans describes Mark's writing, using an excess of flowery words. It also used a lot of dramatic sentence structure over and over again, something I'm more than familiar with as being overly present in my own old writing. It's something that gets old real fast.
In terms of mystery, I think it did okay. I remember halfway through the book, I'd come to a fairly hard conclusion as to who the culprit was (it felt like the mystery had already solved itself) and I worried that the end half of the book would only be unnecessary filler. However, there were a couple of light twists at the end that did not actually disappoint me. Although I'm still confused by the first page in Chapter Zero where she writes "your own mug shot" tho......
What was actually disappointing was the handling of characters and their relationships. The "uppity hoity-toity" way that Sophia wrote was one thing, but the entirety of Mark looking down on Claire for 20yrs of marriage, his resultant cheating, and not to mention predatory behaviour (as a 26yo preying on a 19yo barely adult)??? And never is he truly punished for any of it?? Claire even stays with him in the end??? And that's after she deems his cheating as a result of her failing as a wife to keep her husband by her side too. Needless to say, the outlook of women and their perceived roles left a nasty taste in my mouth.