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A review by seasonedreadings
Ymir by Rich Larson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 72%.
I thought I was going to finish and give it a humble 3 stars, but I soon realized that I was dreading picking this book up each day.
This was very disappointing, and ultimately a tragedy of unrealized potential. Before I get into my critiques, I will say that I liked Larson's writing style. It's very easy to read (maybe too easy because if I wasn't totally focused on the book my mind would wander) and the chapters are short (like 2 pages on average), so you can make a lot of progress in an evening. The world-building and the politics are easy to grasp so I think this could've been a passable movie (Aaron Paul is my fancast for Yorick). Unfortunately, the execution on the plot falls short in a lot of places. I can honestly say I was only TRULY interested during two moments in 300 pages.
My biggest gripe is that Ymir didn't deliver on the fraught brother vs. brother dynamics that I was promised. And that was my whole reason for being there! When Yorick and his brother Thello reunited after 20 years of radio silence....nothing happens. There's no angst, no tension, no yelling, no trying one way or the other to either repair their relationship or destroy it so they could both be free from this holding pattern. Even though Thello ruined his face (and possibly his life), Yorick is so full of loathing for himself and everything around him that hate obviously isn't all that he feels for his brother. There's hate, shame, grasping for a relationship with the only person in the world who loved him, loss, wonder at how it all could've gone so wrong all mixed up together, and that does come through — through vibes only, I might add, because Yorick is so busy substance abusing and repressing that we don't get to unpack it in any real way. It would've been delicious if we had!
Thello, on the other hand, is indifferent to his brother. I can't even really say if he was hateful. Grown up Thello is in his automaton era (part of this could be due to the fact that's he's tapped in with the grendel and being the leader of this revolution or whatever) but he was giving serial killer and he acts like Yorick is just any man who walked in off the street. You see your brother for the first time in 20 years after you blew half his head off, and you have NOTHING to say? You don't wanna explain yourself or justify your actions? You don't wanna rage at him for leaving? You don't wanna have a villain's monologue where you explain how you've gotten here and it's all his fault somehow? NOTHING????? It fell criminally flat and while I was reading I realized that I didn't necessarily trust Larson to fix his error in the next 100 pages so I was like...why am I here?
1 of the 2 interesting moments in the book is when Thello reveals he's going to use Yorick in his rebellion and makes him ingest an explosive that'll kill him in three days to ensure his compliance. So Yorick decides that he's gonna stick by the company and find someway to ruin his plan SOLELY to get back at Thello, and he's even gonna get Thello tortured and imprisoned. And I was like "THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!!!!!!" FINALLY some family drama in this house. But then other things happen and by pg. 300 we find out that Yorick shot himself in the head not Thello, and so now he's gonna go break his brother out of company prison and get the grendel and "save the day." And I'm like...........ok. That didn't feel like the right ending for these two either. The right ending to me felt like a Shakespearean tragedy where everybody dies, and Larson very well could've served that but I couldn't bring myself to stick around to find out.
My second biggest gripe is that in addition to not developing the biggest draw of the book, the characters aren't engaging. I am no stranger to the sad-horrible-miserable-man trope (and some of my fave characters fall into this category) so it's not like I expected to fall in love with Yorick, but you've gotta give me something to make me care and Larson didn't it. It felt like he was so focused on making the most despondent character imaginable that he forgot to do anything else. I had no hope that Yorick was going to "reform," he certainly wasn't going to live happily ever after, and I doubted that anything meaningful was going to happen with the brother so, again....why am I here?
I think if Larson had spent less time on trying to make the world as bleak and cold and unforgiving as possible and put more effort into the character work I think we could've had something really interesting on our hands.
This was very disappointing, and ultimately a tragedy of unrealized potential. Before I get into my critiques, I will say that I liked Larson's writing style. It's very easy to read (maybe too easy because if I wasn't totally focused on the book my mind would wander) and the chapters are short (like 2 pages on average), so you can make a lot of progress in an evening. The world-building and the politics are easy to grasp so I think this could've been a passable movie (Aaron Paul is my fancast for Yorick). Unfortunately, the execution on the plot falls short in a lot of places. I can honestly say I was only TRULY interested during two moments in 300 pages.
My biggest gripe is that Ymir didn't deliver on the fraught brother vs. brother dynamics that I was promised. And that was my whole reason for being there! When Yorick and his brother Thello reunited after 20 years of radio silence....nothing happens. There's no angst, no tension, no yelling, no trying one way or the other to either repair their relationship or destroy it so they could both be free from this holding pattern. Even though Thello ruined his face (and possibly his life), Yorick is so full of loathing for himself and everything around him that hate obviously isn't all that he feels for his brother. There's hate, shame, grasping for a relationship with the only person in the world who loved him, loss, wonder at how it all could've gone so wrong all mixed up together, and that does come through — through vibes only, I might add, because Yorick is so busy substance abusing and repressing that we don't get to unpack it in any real way. It would've been delicious if we had!
Thello, on the other hand, is indifferent to his brother. I can't even really say if he was hateful. Grown up Thello is in his automaton era (part of this could be due to the fact that's he's tapped in with the grendel and being the leader of this revolution or whatever) but he was giving serial killer and he acts like Yorick is just any man who walked in off the street. You see your brother for the first time in 20 years after you blew half his head off, and you have NOTHING to say? You don't wanna explain yourself or justify your actions? You don't wanna rage at him for leaving? You don't wanna have a villain's monologue where you explain how you've gotten here and it's all his fault somehow? NOTHING????? It fell criminally flat and while I was reading I realized that I didn't necessarily trust Larson to fix his error in the next 100 pages so I was like...why am I here?
My second biggest gripe is that in addition to not developing the biggest draw of the book, the characters aren't engaging. I am no stranger to the sad-horrible-miserable-man trope (and some of my fave characters fall into this category) so it's not like I expected to fall in love with Yorick, but you've gotta give me something to make me care and Larson didn't it. It felt like he was so focused on making the most despondent character imaginable that he forgot to do anything else. I had no hope that Yorick was going to "reform," he certainly wasn't going to live happily ever after, and I doubted that anything meaningful was going to happen with the brother so, again....why am I here?
I think if Larson had spent less time on trying to make the world as bleak and cold and unforgiving as possible and put more effort into the character work I think we could've had something really interesting on our hands.