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versmonesprit's reviews
217 reviews
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
I listened to the audiobook, and I’m still not sure if it enhanced my experience with the book, or if I’d have enjoyed it far more had I read it for myself. Though I can say two things for sure: the book was a disappointment, but the narrators were great. My biggest issue with audiobooks is narrators who try to live out their theatre kid fantasies by performing full on drama, yelling in people’s ears. Thankfully, the narrators here knew how to read calmly.
I expected so much from this book, and regretted it so much when I missed out on the opportunity to purchase the hardcover. Now I’m thankful to whomever snatched the only copy, I would’ve cried had I spent money on this.
Unfortunately with contemporary books that are not within the scope of literature, the mass market hype is going to be there. Some of that hype is so misdirected, so cut off from the reality of the book that it only sets the book up for failure. This book has been called weird and gothic, and it’s really anything but for the most part. Armfield has missed a BIG opportunity here to make actual art, but I guess the mass market success is more desirable, which I perfectly understand, but don’t give much value to.
The book alternates between Miri’s PoV set in the now of the book, and Leah’s set in the past of the book, though most of Miri’s chapters are also flashbacks. Both of these narrations are too sober to suit the premise of the book, when it merited a truly surreal tone. I can’t say for sure if the two narrators had their distinct voices, but it didn’t necessarily felt so.
Our Wives Under the Sea is a book that suffers from an identity crisis: it doesn’t know what it wants to be. SciFi thriller with the sinisterly mysterious Centre that disappears? Weird fiction with cosmic horror undertones? Contemporary romance with silly li’l convos? The only thing worse than the constant mentions of movies and whatnot was the literal info dump: Armfield seems to have googled biology facts to then copy-paste them. Why?? You do a clever little thing by naming your book’s parts after the levels of the ocean, and then ruin the effect by explaining them within the narration?? Then we have biologists telling each other that jellyfish are mostly water?? It’s all over the place.
The lack of editing down also ruins the final eeriness/creepiness the climax of the book builds, when the crescendo is interrupted by more meandering thoughts and narrations by Leah and Miri. Why would someone ruin their own book’s height??
When people say nothing really happens throughout the book, it’s because nothing really happens throughout the book. It’s pretty much the blurb: Leah is gone on a deep sea mission for 3 weeks, but returns 6 months later. Miri finds her changed. We don’t get more than that, and even Leah’s end is the most anticlimactic option possible. We never really get the horror and heartbreak of Leah changing into something that’s not human — not from Leah herself, not from Miri. Her condition is approached clinically, and with utter disinterest when you come to think of it. Characters do the absolute bare minimum for some reason.
The cherry on top is that we never even get any real deep sea horror either. You read and you read and you read, and at the end the most that is revealed from Leah is that she saw a giant eye. Deep in the ocean. A creature’s eye. Shocking! What revelation! There has never been a huge sea animal with an eye before, not in reality, not in fiction! What an original masterpiece! How scary! A sea animal that has an eye! That’s literally it, that’s the most we get.
If you think the book hints at anything… no it doesn’t. It gives absolutely nothing, no foundation, no hint, no clue, not a single breadcrumb for the reader to fill the blanks in. No, it gives absolutely nothing, and because you want to believe you didn’t waste your time reading this book only for the writer to have been too lazy to write anything, you gaslight yourself into believing there’s something between the lines, the book’s lack of content is actually eerie and hides something sinister. It doesn’t.
And to be clear — I don’t like plot-heavy books. I don’t care if nothing happens, I don’t need anything to happen. I read for the art of it. I read for the expression. But there is none of that here! This is a plot-based mass market book that doesn’t even have a style to make up for its lack of substance.
If you want to see what can be done with a similar premise (the effects of death at sea) pick up Vi Khi Nao’s Fish in Exile. It’s surreal and emotional and poetic and everything Our Wives Under the Sea would have benefitted insanely from having.
I expected so much from this book, and regretted it so much when I missed out on the opportunity to purchase the hardcover. Now I’m thankful to whomever snatched the only copy, I would’ve cried had I spent money on this.
Unfortunately with contemporary books that are not within the scope of literature, the mass market hype is going to be there. Some of that hype is so misdirected, so cut off from the reality of the book that it only sets the book up for failure. This book has been called weird and gothic, and it’s really anything but for the most part. Armfield has missed a BIG opportunity here to make actual art, but I guess the mass market success is more desirable, which I perfectly understand, but don’t give much value to.
The book alternates between Miri’s PoV set in the now of the book, and Leah’s set in the past of the book, though most of Miri’s chapters are also flashbacks. Both of these narrations are too sober to suit the premise of the book, when it merited a truly surreal tone. I can’t say for sure if the two narrators had their distinct voices, but it didn’t necessarily felt so.
Our Wives Under the Sea is a book that suffers from an identity crisis: it doesn’t know what it wants to be. SciFi thriller with the sinisterly mysterious Centre that disappears? Weird fiction with cosmic horror undertones? Contemporary romance with silly li’l convos? The only thing worse than the constant mentions of movies and whatnot was the literal info dump: Armfield seems to have googled biology facts to then copy-paste them. Why?? You do a clever little thing by naming your book’s parts after the levels of the ocean, and then ruin the effect by explaining them within the narration?? Then we have biologists telling each other that jellyfish are mostly water?? It’s all over the place.
The lack of editing down also ruins the final eeriness/creepiness the climax of the book builds, when the crescendo is interrupted by more meandering thoughts and narrations by Leah and Miri. Why would someone ruin their own book’s height??
When people say nothing really happens throughout the book, it’s because nothing really happens throughout the book. It’s pretty much the blurb: Leah is gone on a deep sea mission for 3 weeks, but returns 6 months later. Miri finds her changed. We don’t get more than that, and even Leah’s end is the most anticlimactic option possible. We never really get the horror and heartbreak of Leah changing into something that’s not human — not from Leah herself, not from Miri. Her condition is approached clinically, and with utter disinterest when you come to think of it. Characters do the absolute bare minimum for some reason.
The cherry on top is that we never even get any real deep sea horror either. You read and you read and you read, and at the end the most that is revealed from Leah is that she saw a giant eye. Deep in the ocean. A creature’s eye. Shocking! What revelation! There has never been a huge sea animal with an eye before, not in reality, not in fiction! What an original masterpiece! How scary! A sea animal that has an eye! That’s literally it, that’s the most we get.
If you think the book hints at anything… no it doesn’t. It gives absolutely nothing, no foundation, no hint, no clue, not a single breadcrumb for the reader to fill the blanks in. No, it gives absolutely nothing, and because you want to believe you didn’t waste your time reading this book only for the writer to have been too lazy to write anything, you gaslight yourself into believing there’s something between the lines, the book’s lack of content is actually eerie and hides something sinister. It doesn’t.
And to be clear — I don’t like plot-heavy books. I don’t care if nothing happens, I don’t need anything to happen. I read for the art of it. I read for the expression. But there is none of that here! This is a plot-based mass market book that doesn’t even have a style to make up for its lack of substance.
If you want to see what can be done with a similar premise (the effects of death at sea) pick up Vi Khi Nao’s Fish in Exile. It’s surreal and emotional and poetic and everything Our Wives Under the Sea would have benefitted insanely from having.
The God Jr by Küçük İskender
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Soyut, alışılmışın dışında, kendine münhasır ifadeleriyle küçük İskender bir kez daha ruhunu dökmüş sayfalara ki zamanın ötesinden dokunabilsin hepimizin ruhlarına.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
I have yet again been bamboozled by a premise that could have been enthralling, riveting, mystifying at the hands of a writer who had something to offer beyond the generic commercial fiction. Unfortunately Han Kang seems to have amazing ideas, but not the amazing talent to make them land. Maybe this is all down to the translation, in which case it’s truly a shame. Either way, I was unendingly bored, exacerbated by the constant repetition.
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Incantatory, righteous, and beautiful. Audre Lorde’s voice is full of fragility and an impeccable force. She’s like the sea, and her poems range from the entrancing to the heartbreaking to the revolting.
My one small disappointment was the loss of that otherworldly magic after the first part. My one great consolation was the power and beauty and tenderness that remained.
My one small disappointment was the loss of that otherworldly magic after the first part. My one great consolation was the power and beauty and tenderness that remained.
Poor by Caleb Femi
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Overwhelmingly lyrical, and just as much powerful, Caleb Femi’s voice might just be the most original in contemporary poetry. Femi is a true poet who sees beyond the form, into the substance, into the expression. While he does experiment with innovative forms (which are a delight to discover!), he’s one of the rare modern poets who understand the flow and rhythm of the words required in poetry. He doesn’t need to rely on form: his expressive and moving words are strong enough to stand for their own. Form for Femi is yet another domain conquered where he can showcase the originality, the uniqueness of his poetic vision. There is so much love, so much tenderness, and so much rightful outrage in these pages to discover, alongside photographs taken by Femi himself. This is such a gem of a poetry collection to experience!
And kudos to Penguin for the printing and binding quality! It’s unfortunately become rare to see this (especially in their Modern Classics).
And kudos to Penguin for the printing and binding quality! It’s unfortunately become rare to see this (especially in their Modern Classics).
All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
In this autofiction, Bouraoui traces her childhood, her sexuality, and her family history alongside each other, in a non-linear fashion, juxtaposing the Algerian nature with her coming to terms with her own.
The writing is precise and straight-to-the-point, without sacrificing a moving lyricism. Bouraoui makes you long for the same Algeria that she herself lost to men’s violence.
By the end, her love for the beauty of nature finally translates to love for her own nature, but I found the journey there a bit too constrained and surface-level, maybe a bit timid in sharing the core of her struggles with her sexuality.
Either way, Bouraoui manages to retain an element of the unknown while revealing as much about herself and her family … hitting you right in that nature of mankind, that nature that makes you want to know boundlessly.
Too many things got in my way of reading this book, but it’s certainly one you could easily devour in one sitting, which might offer an even better reading experience than spreading it out and thin.
The writing is precise and straight-to-the-point, without sacrificing a moving lyricism. Bouraoui makes you long for the same Algeria that she herself lost to men’s violence.
By the end, her love for the beauty of nature finally translates to love for her own nature, but I found the journey there a bit too constrained and surface-level, maybe a bit timid in sharing the core of her struggles with her sexuality.
Either way, Bouraoui manages to retain an element of the unknown while revealing as much about herself and her family … hitting you right in that nature of mankind, that nature that makes you want to know boundlessly.
Too many things got in my way of reading this book, but it’s certainly one you could easily devour in one sitting, which might offer an even better reading experience than spreading it out and thin.
The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Written like a murderer’s confession, The Tunnel offers perhaps the best decoding of the obsessive, pathological mind: from the emotional and physical abuse to the gaslighting and from the emotional blackmail to the lovebombing, Sábato traces the dangers of getting caught in the web of what could be described as an incel in today’s terms. The book is extremely distressing, and so often you find your heart racing as it breaks for the woman who we know, from the first sentence of the book, has been murdered.
But The Tunnel, despite being set in such a despicable mind, is extremely beautiful as Sábato ruminates on human nature through the most engrossing writing. Everything about the craft of the book is, in one word, flawless. It’s almost impossible to accept that this was his first novel!
I could go on until this review took up pages upon pages, but I’ll resort to simply insisting you all read this masterpiece.
But The Tunnel, despite being set in such a despicable mind, is extremely beautiful as Sábato ruminates on human nature through the most engrossing writing. Everything about the craft of the book is, in one word, flawless. It’s almost impossible to accept that this was his first novel!
I could go on until this review took up pages upon pages, but I’ll resort to simply insisting you all read this masterpiece.
Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
Bataille’s non-fiction is infinitely better than his fiction, though judging by how artless, insipid, and juvenile his fiction is, that might not mean awfully lot when in fact he has some solid cultural theories. It’s a shame none of those have found their way into Story of the Eye, an inherently silly and dumb tale written in a way that’d cast an unimaginative and hormonal 12 year old boy’s writing in a superior light. The accounts are too stupid to be taken serious enough as transgressive. There’s no real culmination pulling the reader towards the end, which entirely fails to sound cathartic due to its flat writing.
This Penguin edition includes essays by Sontag and Barthes. Whereas Sontag isn’t as brilliant as usual in her meandering and evasive essay on pornographic literature, Barthes is characteristically so wrong in everything he ever said.
Mourning the loss of my money on a book that gives nothing but utter boredom.
This Penguin edition includes essays by Sontag and Barthes. Whereas Sontag isn’t as brilliant as usual in her meandering and evasive essay on pornographic literature, Barthes is characteristically so wrong in everything he ever said.
Mourning the loss of my money on a book that gives nothing but utter boredom.
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Audre Lorde is an easy to love woman — the beauty of her soul and power immediately endear her to you, to the point you become happy when she mentions being so, and you feel enraged alongside her when she’s wronged. It’s only the cherry on top that she is a MAGNIFICENT writer. Even in this non-fiction book including essays and journal entries, her voice is lyrical, reminiscent of Clarice Lispector. Lorde is infinitely wise in her views and reflections when speaking up for herself and for justice alike. Yes, this book centres her experience with mastectomy, but it involves so much more too, from body image to selfhood to the medical industry to racial justice to sisterhood to the nature of speaking up for each other. Lorde’s voice is one that must be heard, both for its messages and also for its beauty. I am filled with so much love from having read this strong and tender account.
Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
14 rather forgettable stories by the author whose magnificent book McGlue is seeming more and more like the fluke. I respect that Moshfegh is a woman who did what the mass market demands to make it as a writer, but not that she can write a masterpiece like McGlue and then turn around to show such amateur writing.
The stories are very readable, but to me that’s not a compliment. I’d much rather read timeless, contemporary human portraits than mass market stories that are strange and shocking only to (I owe this upcoming phrasing to a Goodreads review for another book) people who find maggots disgusting for what maggots do.
June 2023 has been the month of disappointing short stories for me. I’m sad to report Moshfegh’s stories (none of which has an ending that manages to land — even those that were so good in the beginning) have taken their place among those collections. These stories felt like a waste of time.
The stories are very readable, but to me that’s not a compliment. I’d much rather read timeless, contemporary human portraits than mass market stories that are strange and shocking only to (I owe this upcoming phrasing to a Goodreads review for another book) people who find maggots disgusting for what maggots do.
June 2023 has been the month of disappointing short stories for me. I’m sad to report Moshfegh’s stories (none of which has an ending that manages to land — even those that were so good in the beginning) have taken their place among those collections. These stories felt like a waste of time.