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A review by onelittlearchive
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book struck a nerve and I'm not even really sure why.
First and foremost I really like Rachel Harrison's writing. It always feels really relatable and accessible to me. I'm not quite sure how to describe her authorial voice but it gives me this sort of relaxed feeling which is always enjoyable to read.
However, in the characters in Cackle? My god are there two more insufferable people than Annie and Sophie? I spent a lot of time while reading trying to figure out if that was what she was going for. If she was trying to craft characters that you simply did not like or if that was on me. From the moment Sophie was introduced she grated on my nerves as she flounced around her fake perfection. I'm always interested in a story about a beguiling mysterious woman who you want to pick apart and understand. Sophie, however, did not give me that. No, Sophie made me want to fling her into an abyss. She felt so self important and that her ideals were the ones any and every woman should take up despite what their desires might be.
Annie? Oh Annie, at first I was on her side. I get it, her life imploded. Her relationship of ten years gone in an instant despite her lingering feelings for Sam. She moved to a new town trying to escape the old life she built with him. I understood. But, my lord is she the most desperate kind of people pleaser who lacked any sort of backbone. The absolute desperation for Sophie to like her despite being the literal weirdest manipulative lady made me insane. Annie's moments of apprehension or self reflection regarding her all consuming friendship with Sophie were brief. Sophie would scare the shit out of her and Annie would just say "Oh, that's okay. We're still friends" the next day. Not to mention her obsessing over her ex to the point that it was honestly pathetic. Girl, stand up!
I really wanted to know the other people in town, their backstories and truly why each of them showed Sophie such trepidatious respect. You get little pieces of that story but largely Cackle focuses primarily on Annie and her burgeoning friendship with Sophie. I kept waiting for Annie to see through her, to find out that she didn't need Sophie or Sam. I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany that she needed to live for herself and her own ideals but... she never did. She traded molding herself into what Sam wanted to then doing the same when it came to Sophie. Even when we got to the part where it seemed like she grew a backbone it honestly just seemed like she became like Sophie, not some moment of self empowerment.
And the ending? Annie and Sophie can go to hell.
All this to say is that I still enjoyed reading this despite being utterly infuriated with the two main characters. I don't know what that says about me as a person. If I was supposed to despise them then thank you Rachel I've spent a week thinking about how much I wanted to throttle both of them. They deserve each other and maybe that's what the ending was trying to say.
First and foremost I really like Rachel Harrison's writing. It always feels really relatable and accessible to me. I'm not quite sure how to describe her authorial voice but it gives me this sort of relaxed feeling which is always enjoyable to read.
However, in the characters in Cackle? My god are there two more insufferable people than Annie and Sophie? I spent a lot of time while reading trying to figure out if that was what she was going for. If she was trying to craft characters that you simply did not like or if that was on me. From the moment Sophie was introduced she grated on my nerves as she flounced around her fake perfection. I'm always interested in a story about a beguiling mysterious woman who you want to pick apart and understand. Sophie, however, did not give me that. No, Sophie made me want to fling her into an abyss. She felt so self important and that her ideals were the ones any and every woman should take up despite what their desires might be.
Annie? Oh Annie, at first I was on her side. I get it, her life imploded. Her relationship of ten years gone in an instant despite her lingering feelings for Sam. She moved to a new town trying to escape the old life she built with him. I understood. But, my lord is she the most desperate kind of people pleaser who lacked any sort of backbone. The absolute desperation for Sophie to like her despite being the literal weirdest manipulative lady made me insane. Annie's moments of apprehension or self reflection regarding her all consuming friendship with Sophie were brief. Sophie would scare the shit out of her and Annie would just say "Oh, that's okay. We're still friends" the next day. Not to mention her obsessing over her ex to the point that it was honestly pathetic. Girl, stand up!
I really wanted to know the other people in town, their backstories and truly why each of them showed Sophie such trepidatious respect. You get little pieces of that story but largely Cackle focuses primarily on Annie and her burgeoning friendship with Sophie. I kept waiting for Annie to see through her, to find out that she didn't need Sophie or Sam. I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany that she needed to live for herself and her own ideals but... she never did. She traded molding herself into what Sam wanted to then doing the same when it came to Sophie. Even when we got to the part where it seemed like she grew a backbone it honestly just seemed like she became like Sophie, not some moment of self empowerment.
And the ending? Annie and Sophie can go to hell.
All this to say is that I still enjoyed reading this despite being utterly infuriated with the two main characters. I don't know what that says about me as a person. If I was supposed to despise them then thank you Rachel I've spent a week thinking about how much I wanted to throttle both of them. They deserve each other and maybe that's what the ending was trying to say.