A review by beccamarriner
The Gaze by Elif Shafak

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t. I was interested in the storyline of the fat lady and dwarf but often found the dictionary of gazes entries interrupting the flow. The stories of the cherry coloured tent was wonderful but too repetitive for my personal liking. I feel I would’ve gotten along with this book better if the different ideas were separate novels as I often struggled to connect them and found the different writing styles very jarring. As someone who enjoys a descriptive writing style, I enjoyed some aspects but it was overshadowed by everything else which is why I cannot give it a higher rating for my personal preferences