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alexamidala's Reviews (235)
2.5 rounded up. The Celestial Wife follows Daisy, a Mormon teen who escapes from her polygamist community during the 1960s. This novel started off strong, but slowly went off the rails. A positive aspect of this novel is that it was extremely readable and easy to digest. Additionally, I think Howard's choice to set this novel in the 1960s was a great one. Having Daisy experience Beatles concerts and Woodstock after leaving her community was lots of fun to read. Unfortunately, I found that Howard's writing lacked the emotional depth necessary when discussing serious topics like sexual violence and child abuse. Also, many of the decisions the characters made throughout this novel were absolutely absurd. I had to audibly groan after reading some of nonsensical things that Daisy did throughout this novel. If you are thinking about picking up this book because you are interested in Mormonism, I would recommend finding a different novel.
Antiquity is an entrancing, dreamlike novel about loneliness and obsession. It's a queer version of Lolita set in Greece, following an unnamed narrator who begins living with a woman and her teenaged daughter in a small island town. The writing in this novel is absolutely gorgeous, and the stream of consciousness narration is both hypnotic and disturbing. The dreaminess of the narrator's language paired with the unsettling content is so reminiscent of Humbert Humbert's narration in Lolita. Johansson's writing is what makes this novel so wonderful, because the plot could be pretty dull at times; however, I was still able to devour this novel within a few hours because of her beautiful writing style.
