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A review by tobbled
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
3.0
3.5 stars
Annoyingly I would've really enjoyed the last 200 or so pages of this IF I hadn't had to sit through the onslaught of the first 400 pages. Way too much happens in Great Circle to actively care about anything. And I get it. I get why. The book is called Great Circle not only in reference to Marian's flight but to how life is interconnected and ya-da ya-da all these events happening in the beginning affect things later on and will circle back BUT I do not care! I understand the symbolism and you could even argue that the fact I don't care about all these events is mirroring the idea that everything is insignificant and something about Marian measuring her worth against the world. However if you review every book with the idea that everything you don't like is secretly a genius symbol then every single book is amazing and show stopping.
Great Circle took me 25 days to read. And not just because it is a 670 page book. Because it is a boring book and I skimmed the last 200 pages - which was in some ways actually the most interesting part about the book.
Obviously I must've liked bits of this book to give it 3.5 stars and I did! This is in no way a bad book it's just not for me: there is too much happening. Also I don't think the writing style exactly reflected Marian in the way it was supposed to. Hadley says, in the book, something along the lines of 'not condensing Marian' and how she is complex and yet that is exactly what the writing style does! It is too official and on the nose - everything is thrown into a box and lacks nuance. Despite the themes of this book being complex and very grey areas, the writing did not mirror that in a way it should've. Also Hadley did absolutely nothing in this entire book.
Annoyingly I would've really enjoyed the last 200 or so pages of this IF I hadn't had to sit through the onslaught of the first 400 pages. Way too much happens in Great Circle to actively care about anything. And I get it. I get why. The book is called Great Circle not only in reference to Marian's flight but to how life is interconnected and ya-da ya-da all these events happening in the beginning affect things later on and will circle back BUT I do not care! I understand the symbolism and you could even argue that the fact I don't care about all these events is mirroring the idea that everything is insignificant and something about Marian measuring her worth against the world. However if you review every book with the idea that everything you don't like is secretly a genius symbol then every single book is amazing and show stopping.
Great Circle took me 25 days to read. And not just because it is a 670 page book. Because it is a boring book and I skimmed the last 200 pages - which was in some ways actually the most interesting part about the book.
Obviously I must've liked bits of this book to give it 3.5 stars and I did! This is in no way a bad book it's just not for me: there is too much happening. Also I don't think the writing style exactly reflected Marian in the way it was supposed to. Hadley says, in the book, something along the lines of 'not condensing Marian' and how she is complex and yet that is exactly what the writing style does! It is too official and on the nose - everything is thrown into a box and lacks nuance. Despite the themes of this book being complex and very grey areas, the writing did not mirror that in a way it should've. Also Hadley did absolutely nothing in this entire book.