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A review by literatehedgehog
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
3.0
[spoilers!!]
An eerie blend of reality and the fantastic. The suspense and secrets pulled me through the plot, but the blend of realistic fiction with haunting fantastic power didn't seem quite balanced to me. The writing seemed too realistic-fiction-genre for me to wholly believe the eventual magic of the mystery. I'm left wanting a different sort of dissatisfying ending: was it or was it not? Did she or didn't she? The depths (ha, no pun intended) of an unreliable, biased narrator could have been plumbed further.
Also, I was discomfited by the excess of description of Ruby's "stunning" beauty and "gleaming bare legs". Perhaps these visions/interpretations of her are meant to be traced back to her power over the town, but this perpetuation -- with no release -- from the beauty myth doesn't sit well with me.
An eerie blend of reality and the fantastic. The suspense and secrets pulled me through the plot, but the blend of realistic fiction with haunting fantastic power didn't seem quite balanced to me. The writing seemed too realistic-fiction-genre for me to wholly believe the eventual magic of the mystery. I'm left wanting a different sort of dissatisfying ending: was it or was it not? Did she or didn't she? The depths (ha, no pun intended) of an unreliable, biased narrator could have been plumbed further.
Also, I was discomfited by the excess of description of Ruby's "stunning" beauty and "gleaming bare legs". Perhaps these visions/interpretations of her are meant to be traced back to her power over the town, but this perpetuation -- with no release -- from the beauty myth doesn't sit well with me.