connorcashcolbert's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I tore through this book in less than 24 hours. Tense, bleak, tender, brutal, tragic, beautiful. A great debut novel but definitely not for the faint of heart!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia and Child abuse
kylenestrella's review against another edition
medium-paced
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
bimeariver's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
a mindfuck of a book if i've ever seen one.
i am....utterly obsessed with the author's writing in this. i'm obsessed with stories with unreliable narrators and characters who are deeply fucked up and ambigious endings that feel like drowning because that's all the story is, it's these characters drowning in a death of their own making because as one character said here, death is something everyone carries with them, and it's because awareness of death is not like a logic that grows in all directions at once, but a condition that is always with us, waiting to float like a body to the surface . . . because death is like memory and memory is like love. and they are all three like a snake swallowing its own tail. becoming itself to destroy itself.
the story at first really just baffled me because of the tone of it, the way these characters were interacting in these dual timelines that clash so harshly and felt like some psychological mindgame as being the reader, i had to try to put the pieces together of something that was irrevocably broken in todd's mind. i can't even be sure to say that this story is for todd's to tell because it feels like there were so many fragments hidden that only certain other characters could really help unfold; such as like with anthony, jack, elaine, and livia's voices, to name a few.
the way the story was split into different parts was absolute genius but it will never live up to the utter shock that was the end of part 1 and i'll be carrying that surprise all the way to the end of the year because this story wasn't even supposed to happen. i never knew it existed a little over 24 hours ago as i'm writing this, and now it's going to be stuck in my head forever??
i am....utterly obsessed with the author's writing in this. i'm obsessed with stories with unreliable narrators and characters who are deeply fucked up and ambigious endings that feel like drowning because that's all the story is, it's these characters drowning in a death of their own making because as one character said here, death is something everyone carries with them, and it's because awareness of death is not like a logic that grows in all directions at once, but a condition that is always with us, waiting to float like a body to the surface . . . because death is like memory and memory is like love. and they are all three like a snake swallowing its own tail. becoming itself to destroy itself.
the story at first really just baffled me because of the tone of it, the way these characters were interacting in these dual timelines that clash so harshly and felt like some psychological mindgame as being the reader, i had to try to put the pieces together of something that was irrevocably broken in todd's mind. i can't even be sure to say that this story is for todd's to tell because it feels like there were so many fragments hidden that only certain other characters could really help unfold; such as like with anthony, jack, elaine, and livia's voices, to name a few.
the way the story was split into different parts was absolute genius but it will never live up to the utter shock that was the end of part 1 and i'll be carrying that surprise all the way to the end of the year because this story wasn't even supposed to happen. i never knew it existed a little over 24 hours ago as i'm writing this, and now it's going to be stuck in my head forever??
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Murder, Body horror, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal death and Violence
allispin's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
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