A review by hongjoongie
Learwife by J.R. Thorp

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Nobody knows my name, you know. Nobody alive.
She is confused. Nobody?
No. I was born with one, but they change them when you marry kings. Rather like with nuns. A pause. The room fills to the brim with ghosts, with Kent.

This moves her. A woman who colonised loneliness and made it profuse, rich with wings, but feels it as worrying in others. You could tell me. I could call you by your name.
The tenderness runs a split down the centre of the room. Perhaps after all it is not grief that folds up time but moments of gentleness.

I think I liked this more in theory than in practice. The book does what it’s meant to do incredibly well, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it.