leasttorque 's review for:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

3.0

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This book. Whew. Packs a punch. There was much I liked here: the spiritual journey of the protagonist, the alien world, the onion structure of the novel with its slow peel toward ultimate tears. And some aspects that irritated me as I read now seem integral to the emotional wallops at the end. You could easily classify this as horror. But I have to knock off a couple of stars for the kumbaya middle, some issues I had suspending disbelief, and the absolutely obnoxious fake Texan.