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mangofloat 's review for:
The World Cannot Give
by Tara Isabella Burton
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
[virginia voice] "u are so unserious"
this was something. a whole ride. my stream of consciousness was like...perverse glee club...virginia strauss is my sleep paralysis demon...laura get up...what does sclerotic mean (i forgot already)...teenagers are vile and dramatic...evil new directions be like...boys are scum...evil warblers be like...laura GET UP. a recipe for a DNF tbh...yet i DF?! and because i wanted to!?
it's true you'd be hard-pressed to find redeeming qualities in most of these characters - and the fact that they're 17-18 makes them extra pretentious - but i think it'd be a very different book if they were older and actually likable. and i liked it exactly how it was, unpleasant teens and all, or else i feel what the premise promised (queer desire! religious zealotry! hunger for transcendence!) couldn't have been delivered as well otherwise. no combo scarier/more fascinating than agency and an undeveloped prefrontal cortex.
i was totally engrossed by the latter half of the book, it kinda turned into a mystery. i ate up the who/why/howdunitism. licked the plate clean, in fact. i was gasping. clutching my pearls. going "they couldn't have!"..."they did!"...oh lord...
anyway i was gonna give this a 4-4.5 but realised that's me being stingy actually?? this is literally the longest review i've ever written so far? i rarely type more than like 30 words at a time. this is a big deal
this was something. a whole ride. my stream of consciousness was like...perverse glee club...virginia strauss is my sleep paralysis demon...laura get up...what does sclerotic mean (i forgot already)...teenagers are vile and dramatic...evil new directions be like...boys are scum...evil warblers be like...laura GET UP. a recipe for a DNF tbh...yet i DF?! and because i wanted to!?
it's true you'd be hard-pressed to find redeeming qualities in most of these characters - and the fact that they're 17-18 makes them extra pretentious - but i think it'd be a very different book if they were older and actually likable. and i liked it exactly how it was, unpleasant teens and all, or else i feel what the premise promised (queer desire! religious zealotry! hunger for transcendence!) couldn't have been delivered as well otherwise. no combo scarier/more fascinating than agency and an undeveloped prefrontal cortex.
i was totally engrossed by the latter half of the book, it kinda turned into a mystery. i ate up the who/why/howdunitism. licked the plate clean, in fact. i was gasping. clutching my pearls. going "they couldn't have!"..."they did!"...oh lord...
anyway i was gonna give this a 4-4.5 but realised that's me being stingy actually?? this is literally the longest review i've ever written so far? i rarely type more than like 30 words at a time. this is a big deal