You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nataliecoyne 's review for:
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
by Geraldine Brooks
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'll start off by saying that I do not take pleasure in ever giving anything a low rating. This is actually my first rating this low.
This may turn into a rambling rant but really all I have to say is that I did find any sort of enjoyment in this book. I motivated myself to keep going, but it was hard. I kept yawning and ending up with a headache while reading this. That could bring a "what came first, the chicken or the egg" type question. Did I have a headache (possibly I was tired and it brought on a headache) and so I didn't enjoy the book? Or was my headache brought on by the book? My theory is personally the latter of the two options. I say this because, when I'd go to take a break from the book, my headache would subside. And I don't even mean taking a "brain break" in general, doing something mindless or laying down or something (the typical things to get rid of a headache). Just anything stepping away from the book, even if that "anything" involved otherwise having to think, read, work, etc., my headache would subside. So, you know, that's not something promising.
I think part of it may be due to the language of the book. I hate ever using the word "pretentious" but some of the writing did feel a bit pretentious. I had trouble understanding a good amount of things and kept having to Google words. With historical fiction, this can very much be expected when it comes to dialogue, as, of course, some of the characters might be using words that we wouldn't necessarily use today. But even beyond just the dialogue, it seems that the author relied on complex vocabulary in the descriptions, narrations, and just the book in general. Maybe this is just me being insecure about not knowing certain words, maybe some other people like learning new words like this. But I didn't feel great about it during reading, and I think it could've contributed to the aforementioned headaches.
As others have said, the ending is also very strange. Between the last chapter, the epilogue, and even partially the second-to-last chapter, it feels like the author wanted to write another book that also had Anna as a main character. But chose to scrap that idea of a separate book, and just threw what she had randomly at the end of this book.
The reason that I can still justify 1.5 (instead of just 1 or even low is just that it's clear a lot of research did go into this. The ability to use that kind of language (as I mentioned) is clearly built upon greatly researching 1600s-era England. So even though I didn't appreciate the actual writing choices, as a lover of history, I can appreciate the level of research that Geraldine Brooks put in.
Looking at other reviews, I am clearly in the overwhelming minority. So I don't want to necessarily dissuade others from reading this. But I personally wouldn't recommend it.
This may turn into a rambling rant but really all I have to say is that I did find any sort of enjoyment in this book. I motivated myself to keep going, but it was hard. I kept yawning and ending up with a headache while reading this. That could bring a "what came first, the chicken or the egg" type question. Did I have a headache (possibly I was tired and it brought on a headache) and so I didn't enjoy the book? Or was my headache brought on by the book? My theory is personally the latter of the two options. I say this because, when I'd go to take a break from the book, my headache would subside. And I don't even mean taking a "brain break" in general, doing something mindless or laying down or something (the typical things to get rid of a headache). Just anything stepping away from the book, even if that "anything" involved otherwise having to think, read, work, etc., my headache would subside. So, you know, that's not something promising.
I think part of it may be due to the language of the book. I hate ever using the word "pretentious" but some of the writing did feel a bit pretentious. I had trouble understanding a good amount of things and kept having to Google words. With historical fiction, this can very much be expected when it comes to dialogue, as, of course, some of the characters might be using words that we wouldn't necessarily use today. But even beyond just the dialogue, it seems that the author relied on complex vocabulary in the descriptions, narrations, and just the book in general. Maybe this is just me being insecure about not knowing certain words, maybe some other people like learning new words like this. But I didn't feel great about it during reading, and I think it could've contributed to the aforementioned headaches.
As others have said, the ending is also very strange. Between the last chapter, the epilogue, and even partially the second-to-last chapter, it feels like the author wanted to write another book that also had Anna as a main character. But chose to scrap that idea of a separate book, and just threw what she had randomly at the end of this book.
The reason that I can still justify 1.5 (instead of just 1 or even low is just that it's clear a lot of research did go into this. The ability to use that kind of language (as I mentioned) is clearly built upon greatly researching 1600s-era England. So even though I didn't appreciate the actual writing choices, as a lover of history, I can appreciate the level of research that Geraldine Brooks put in.
Looking at other reviews, I am clearly in the overwhelming minority. So I don't want to necessarily dissuade others from reading this. But I personally wouldn't recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Abortion, Abandonment, War, Classism