A review by mouse_teeth
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

3.0

Mixed feelings about this one. There are some interesting underpinnings about faith and power, but neither is developed enough for it to become particularly gripping. I enjoyed Ina’s parts the most, and would have liked her magic to have been more utilised in the story. I liked the addition of Grigor towards the end, but he seems hastily written in. I would have much preferred to read scenes of Ina and Grigor than endless reams of Marek, the unceasing descriptions of whose ugliness became so dull as to be enraging. This book is relentlessly cruel, at times often in a tick box checking kind of way: incest: check, rape: check, cannibalism: check, pedophilia: check, so many eyeballs: check. To me, that kind of shock writing is banal.