books4chess 's review for:

Fear of Barbarians by Petar Andonovski
3.0

“The making up of stories is an act of loneliness, a need for dialogue, the person who makes up a story must be very lonely”. 

Oksana and Penelope are writing letters to each other after being separated in a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ build up - alas with no end climax. 

I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the inevitable build up and …it didn’t happen. The book packs in so much character development and presents a variety of characters with near-complete histories but with a few pages extra. It could have really been something. That said, I was here for the LGBTQI+ and first-hand migration experience representation. 

The book is very existential and sadly, I am not.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc.