A review by curatoriallyyours
The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

I straight up hated this book. It took half the book for the plot to get interesting enough to want to know what would happen (this is not an exaggeration - I struggled through the first half of this book, not wanting to pick it up) and the narrator kept repeating things over and over again and describing tableaus in excruciating detail for no plot-related reason. There were even one or two tableaus that the narrator definitely did not see, and yet they were described by the narrator as though he had seen them. I did not like the characters and was not invested in them enough to maintain motivation to keep picking this book up. I ploughed on because it was selected for a book club but I think I will be swearing off book clubs from now on because I have so many books I actually want to read that I cannot justify the time reading books I have no interest in.