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leahrosekessler 's review for:
Elmet
by Fiona Mozley
I did not like this book. People seem to love it and I am not sure why. Yes, the writing and word choice was lovely. I've read a lot of reviews that speak of the setting as a huge reason the book is so wonderful, but I have to say that I've read plenty of other books in which the landscape is described so lovingly and richly and this book didn't stand out extraordinarily to me in that respect. The two stars I did give it were for the quality of the writing.
What I didn't like about it (SPOILERS):
NOTHING at all happened for a full third of the book. It was all backstory. None of the characters took any action, the main character didn't do anything to move the plot forward in any way, because there was no plot for the first 100 pages or so. Then... the mean rich landlord shows up and from that point on the plot played out exactly as I had begun to expect it would from the start. All that backstory tipped me off to the idea that the main character and family were a group of morally upright, but living according to their own laws types and that Things Were Not Going To End Well. And it pretty much went exactly by that script for the rest of the book. Nothing surprising or off-book happened. I feel like this is a pretty standard story line with stock characters and I am honestly at a loss for why this book has received so many accolades. I feel like I've read and watched pretty much this same storyline in many other formats. Maybe if this was the first time I was encountering it I'd be blown away too, but it was not. Also, there is absolutely nothing hopeful or uplifting at the end, so if you're into reading about trauma in order to see the silver lining at the end, don't bother.
What I didn't like about it (SPOILERS):
NOTHING at all happened for a full third of the book. It was all backstory. None of the characters took any action, the main character didn't do anything to move the plot forward in any way, because there was no plot for the first 100 pages or so. Then... the mean rich landlord shows up and from that point on the plot played out exactly as I had begun to expect it would from the start. All that backstory tipped me off to the idea that the main character and family were a group of morally upright, but living according to their own laws types and that Things Were Not Going To End Well. And it pretty much went exactly by that script for the rest of the book. Nothing surprising or off-book happened. I feel like this is a pretty standard story line with stock characters and I am honestly at a loss for why this book has received so many accolades. I feel like I've read and watched pretty much this same storyline in many other formats. Maybe if this was the first time I was encountering it I'd be blown away too, but it was not. Also, there is absolutely nothing hopeful or uplifting at the end, so if you're into reading about trauma in order to see the silver lining at the end, don't bother.