A review by pavonated
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

 Perverse, yes. But "provocative"? It's not substantial enough. A tour through a cast of characters being miserable, and taking pleasure in another's misery. It's set in a "medieval fiefdom" that has about as much grounding in history as Monty Python, except not funny or satire and instead boring and stale. The whole 'everyone used to live in muck and mud' thing is so trite. Doesn't help the lack of substance. Plenty of graphic sexual violence for.... Some reason. There's not really a reason to anything here. If I'm being generous, characters seem to switch between masks of different purposes and analogies frequently, so nothing is said in the end. We're all sinners I guess? We're all damned? Everyone has a capacity for cruelness and innocence? I could've put this book down at any point and gotten the same thing out of it. I only finished it because I have nothing else to read on this train.
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