A review by khopeisz
My Soul Twin by Nino Haratischwili

1.75

This book was a dnf for me at the 25% point but I decided to finish it bc 1) morbidly intrigued by the plot and 2) felt the urge to complete a book so that I could compel myself to read another book afterwards. An object in motion, you know.

That one season from love is blind demonstrably highlighted how incorporating your child in your extramarital affairs can cause trauma to that child as well as the family. And I get how attachment and abandonment issues born from your parents’ separation can mess you up as an adult if you don’t deal with them.

THAT being said, oh my god the main characters in this book are two of the most toxic people I have ever read about. This book also does a thing that irks me: for many many many pages we are skirting around a conflict without addressing it. Another book that similarly does this is They’re going to Love You, but I actually liked the characters in that book so the skirting was forgivable.

This book is also appropriately titled in the sense that only two of the most toxic people you know would call each other their soul twins or twin flames or some bullshit lol. Personally I believe that terminology is a signifier for, “I have codependency issues and don’t know how to let go.” Anyway, Stella and Ivo are the poster children for trauma bonding. Which would have been fine if this was a book about teenagers, but Stella is at a big age of 36 being so toxic. You think she would have worked out before being 36 that she and Ivo are not responsible for the tragedy of Ivo’s mother. If anything, more smoke should have been placed on their shitty fathers. But for some reason, Stella’s mother is painted in a bad light in the aftermath. And the two children grow up blaming themselves (which is completely understandable for children to do, but as a grown adult with your own child, I sort of lose patience with the self pity and toxicity).

This book needed to have been completely reworked in order to have been successful for me. 95% of this book (rough and maybe exaggerated estimate but who cares) is told in the passive voice. It held me at a distance, and I was never invested in/convinced by most of the events happening or the characters. The story should have followed them as children into young adulthood. But then if we did that then we wouldn’t have had all the salacious incest sex scenes gasp!

This book was translated well but the writing was meh. I cringed at some of the analogies and metaphors. What was that one paragraph about earnestly comparing a love affair to wine??

I have read books where stories with unlikeable characters and unlikeable mothers, for whom society does not have a lot of sympathy I get it, is done SO much better than it is in this book. Prime example, Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter! Impeccable in my opinion, and demonstrates in so little words how generational trauma can impact motherhood. Also, Piñiero’s All Yours gave brief glimpses into why the main character mothered the way she did, and you still didn’t hate her for it. So I’m not saying a mother character cannot be unlikeable and make selfish decisions in a book, I’m saying that if you’re not skillful in character development, maybe don’t tackle the subject? That Stella left her son to go on some random ass excursion with Ivo irritated me because I was exhausted with her as a character.

The whole final third of this book I skimmed you could not have paid me to give a flying fck about what Ivo and Stella were doing in the Caucasus region or wherever they were. Also, spoiler but they both should have died lol.

The carrot bit for me was the only saving grace. Someone protect little Theo.

I picked this book up out of consolation because my library does not carry The Eighth Life and that was the book by this author that I actually wanted to read. Now I don’t even want to read that book.