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A review by elspethm
The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida
4.0
Maybe I was just like the protagonist of this book and didn't realize I was getting myself into a psychological thriller, but I can't stand books where someone "can't get out of the town" - even if it is somewhat by that person's choice; where people are being gaslit; where someone never stands up for themselves no matter what happens.
I read this book mostly because it was short and I needed a 2nd person book for one of my reading challenges. From the beginning it was odd. The protagonist (which is not necessarily the word to use here since she is not a fighter and seems to shoot herself in the foot more than anyone else does to her - maybe the antagonist is herself?) goes to Morocco, her identity is stolen and then she never really speaks up and just lets things happen as they will. I guess that is just her M.O. in general as we hear more about her life before coming to Morocco.
It just about killed me hearing about her falling out with her sister (and then it got *worse*), and that was when I went from just passively reading the book to getting involved with the story. The ending is also sudden and unclear, which I suppose means the rest of her life will go on in a whirlwind of new identities and situations. I would have been happy with it ending after she left Casablanca, because it gets harder to listen to from there, but ultimately it gets back to a similar point as she was in Casablanca so the ending didn't bother me as much as I thought it might. Not my standard happy ending book but definitely one that makes you think.
I read this book mostly because it was short and I needed a 2nd person book for one of my reading challenges. From the beginning it was odd. The protagonist (which is not necessarily the word to use here since she is not a fighter and seems to shoot herself in the foot more than anyone else does to her - maybe the antagonist is herself?) goes to Morocco, her identity is stolen and then she never really speaks up and just lets things happen as they will. I guess that is just her M.O. in general as we hear more about her life before coming to Morocco.
It just about killed me hearing about her falling out with her sister (and then it got *worse*), and that was when I went from just passively reading the book to getting involved with the story. The ending is also sudden and unclear, which I suppose means the rest of her life will go on in a whirlwind of new identities and situations. I would have been happy with it ending after she left Casablanca, because it gets harder to listen to from there, but ultimately it gets back to a similar point as she was in Casablanca so the ending didn't bother me as much as I thought it might. Not my standard happy ending book but definitely one that makes you think.