A review by gwyl
A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

the prose was dizzying, effusive, run-on sentences that did not wait for your five senses to keep up, words that dripped from the page, dense and decadent. indulgent prose fitting for a story all about indulgence - but more so what condemns one to it and how it all unravels. sabina falls neatly into the category of morally ambiguous literary hot girls, the tortured femme fatale, the yearning girl at the heart of it all. this book took me by surprise in the way it pulled me under. trust that sabina is also taking her time to reveal herself to readers, growing more authentic and vulnerable as the pages go by, the mysterious persona confronted with hard truths. the epiphany, absolution of the final act feels almost theatrical in its denouement: the collision of narrative threads that rearranges the assumed chronology, the collapsing of space and the blurring of reality. a torrid collection of love affairs but a story of non-love.