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A review by zhannie
Cherryvine by Marina Vivancos
emotional
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
"No. Please, no apologies. I can't bear you thinking that this is your fault. If you were free to choose, you'd never choose this, and isn't that what we are? Not what other people make us, but our choices when we are free to make them? Let's not apologise to each other about this. Let's just... as you say. Take care of each other."
It's a hurt-comfort story; lots of hurt in the past and lots of comfort in the present, which is definitely my cup of tea. The writing is absolutely beautiful and at the beginning I thought this was definitely gonna be one of my favorite comfort reads. It's very low angst and it follows the journey of Isak's healing from traumatic bond with his previous (deceased) husband.
I loved both characters and how it started: Isak, a wounded sould, and Emil who has no idea what's going on, but who is so respectful, caring and gentle towards his husband. But I have to admit that I didn't quite feel chemistry between them and the switch in Emil's approach at the very beginning was a bit abrupt (
I loved the South, the people, the food. And I absolutely loved the hurt-comfort moments.
But I don't know what happened. At around 77% or so my investment in the two of them and the story waned. I think it's maybe because at that point, it turned more into telling rather than showing? Like, days passed with them doing this and that, they became closer, this and that would happen from time to time... It felt like the end of the story, but it dragged out and, as short as this story is, I kinda found myself just wanting it to end.
The epilogue didn't help this at all:
And the last thing, a few female characters in this book that Isak interacted closely with all sort of had the same voice. It felt like one and the same personality to me, and in fact, it also reminded me of two characters from another one of Marina's books (Koko and another girl - forgot her name - from "In This Iron Ground").
I'm really torn, y'know. I enjoyed the first half of the story and was looking forward to more, but then it all fell so flat and I felt disappointed.