A review by galexywitch
House of Names by Colm Tóibín

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

The beginning was good - it starts with Clytemnestra’s POV, which was very emotional and engaging. If it had only been her POV I imagine this would have been a ~4 star book for me. However, the rest of the book is primarily told from Orestes POV, and I found myself not carrying about 90% of his storyline. His character was also boring. He felt like a child even late in the book even though (I think - this is not very clear in the book) a number of years had passed. I assumed as I was reading that by the end he should be at least in his teens, but he felt very young and never did anything without guidance from someone else. He would also just go along with what people told him to do with little thought into it. This made him easy to manipulate, and when he discovered later that he may have been manipulated to do certain things he acknowledged it and…..didn’t do anything about it or tell anyone and this felt really unsatisfying. It felt like there was a chance for his character to grow and possibly right his mistakes in some way but instead he did nothing and immediately stopped caring. The ending was also very unsatisfying. It felt like there needed to be another chapter or an epilogue to wrap everything up, but instead it just ends.

I listened to the audio book. The performance was decent but nothing spectacular.