A review by frankityfrank19
If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais

3.0

Marais is truly talented at creating competing characters. I personally love novels that are told in different perspectives and she has done a wonderful job convincing the reader to invest their time in the three leading character's lives. I am also a fan of period pieces, so having the opportunity to read about South Africa in the 90's, especially through the perspective of what individuals could have experienced rather than through statistics or filtered media, was something that I'm glad to have taken up. However, I personally felt that the story dragged for the first 200 pages, and then flew by in the last 200. I was honestly surprised when the main characters all finally intersected so late in the book, since all of the build up to that moment was inching along. Although I do appreciate the effort that Marais went through to create such intricate lives for her characters, there were some points where I was feeling stuck and unmotivated to keep reading. The ending, thankfully, did feel satisfying enough to make up for the very slow first half.