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taradoesreading 's review for:
The Vaster Wilds
by Lauren Groff
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men.”
Lauren Groff is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I followed this journey of a servant girl named Lamentations with the same deep fascination as the survival story of Hatchet. The prose, as Groff’s always is, was sumptuous and captivating, and the stream-of-consciousness style really helped make the seventeenth-century language work.
I enjoyed every moment, from the girl’s lofty philosophical musings to the gritty, everyday details of her survival. I loved the slow unraveling of her backstory through memories and dreams interwoven throughout, which helped the story not feel repetitive and kept me interested at every turn.
My only note is that her revelations toward the end—about god and about colonialism—didn’t quite feel earned to me, perhaps a bit too didactic since the ideas are clear in other ways throughout the novel. But while years ago I might have felt disappointed by the ending, I really loved this one. When I finished the last page, it felt truly inevitable, as all good endings are.
I can’t wait to read this one again when I’m in the mood for a quick but engrossing, eerie read.
Lauren Groff is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I followed this journey of a servant girl named Lamentations with the same deep fascination as the survival story of Hatchet. The prose, as Groff’s always is, was sumptuous and captivating, and the stream-of-consciousness style really helped make the seventeenth-century language work.
I enjoyed every moment, from the girl’s lofty philosophical musings to the gritty, everyday details of her survival. I loved the slow unraveling of her backstory through memories and dreams interwoven throughout, which helped the story not feel repetitive and kept me interested at every turn.
My only note is that her revelations toward the end—about god and about colonialism—didn’t quite feel earned to me, perhaps a bit too didactic since the ideas are clear in other ways throughout the novel. But while years ago I might have felt disappointed by the ending, I really loved this one. When I finished the last page, it felt truly inevitable, as all good endings are.
I can’t wait to read this one again when I’m in the mood for a quick but engrossing, eerie read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation
Minor: Genocide, Rape, Xenophobia, Vomit, Cannibalism, War