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A review by pixiecircle
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
medium-paced
3.0
i do not understand the great praise for this novel...
it started off all right (enough for me to buy it, at least) but slowly devolved into a disappointing mess. the perspectives alternated too often, the eras changed too often, and it was difficult to connect with any of the characters. this is the least of my issues with the book, though.
the author makes an extremely ineloquent attempt to briefly acknowledge structural racism and the broken prison-industrial complex, and the result is a rather gross taste in my mouth. it's as if they simply wanted the credit of acknowledging the reality of this, rather than taking the time to create a meaningful discussion about it.
interrogations into morality are... lacking, at best. the peak of the author's commentary on morality is the basic "people are neither good nor bad! morality is gray!" and it's like yes, i thought we already had long socratic seminars about this in our high school english classes, but i suppose our reading comprehension skills have deteriorated so much we have to restate it again and again.
i disagree with the idea that providing the pov of the serial killer gives him legitimacy or causes the reader to empathize with murderers. i have more faith in people than that. i think we are smart enough and have strong enough constitutions that one work of fiction would not be enough to completely sway our moral compasses lol. booktubers are truly society's weakest links
that being said, i do think the author took great pains to make ansel very ordinary, which has its positives and negatives. unfortunately in this novel, his entire pov was one big nothing burger and actually took away from the story more than it added to it. the lack of motive on ansel's part was incredibly irritating-- it seemed like the case the author was making was one of "well some people are just psychopaths" and "well some men are just violent" even though i'm 99% sure the author doesn't think that way, the novel lacked that greater articulation.
also, i wish authors would realize that sentence fragments are not artistic-- they're just annoying to read.
tldr it was fine like it was readable and i was interested in the plot but the writing itself, character motivations, alternating perspectives, and the last few chapters brought my rating down exceptionally.
it started off all right (enough for me to buy it, at least) but slowly devolved into a disappointing mess. the perspectives alternated too often, the eras changed too often, and it was difficult to connect with any of the characters. this is the least of my issues with the book, though.
the author makes an extremely ineloquent attempt to briefly acknowledge structural racism and the broken prison-industrial complex, and the result is a rather gross taste in my mouth. it's as if they simply wanted the credit of acknowledging the reality of this, rather than taking the time to create a meaningful discussion about it.
interrogations into morality are... lacking, at best. the peak of the author's commentary on morality is the basic "people are neither good nor bad! morality is gray!" and it's like yes, i thought we already had long socratic seminars about this in our high school english classes, but i suppose our reading comprehension skills have deteriorated so much we have to restate it again and again.
i disagree with the idea that providing the pov of the serial killer gives him legitimacy or causes the reader to empathize with murderers. i have more faith in people than that. i think we are smart enough and have strong enough constitutions that one work of fiction would not be enough to completely sway our moral compasses lol. booktubers are truly society's weakest links
that being said, i do think the author took great pains to make ansel very ordinary, which has its positives and negatives. unfortunately in this novel, his entire pov was one big nothing burger and actually took away from the story more than it added to it. the lack of motive on ansel's part was incredibly irritating-- it seemed like the case the author was making was one of "well some people are just psychopaths" and "well some men are just violent" even though i'm 99% sure the author doesn't think that way, the novel lacked that greater articulation.
also, i wish authors would realize that sentence fragments are not artistic-- they're just annoying to read.
tldr it was fine like it was readable and i was interested in the plot but the writing itself, character motivations, alternating perspectives, and the last few chapters brought my rating down exceptionally.