fianaigecht's review
3.0
This book doesn't come out until next year, so I'm not sure as I should be reviewing it already -- I've never had one quite so far in advance before! I received this from NetGalley in exchange for a review and I'm giving it a go -- no spoilers here, but I'm putting it under a spoiler tag simply because the book doesn't come out until February and I guess I should let people make up their own minds? Basically.
This was, for me, rather an odd read. It was beautifully written in places -- dozens of lines that I highlighted because they were gorgeous. In many ways it felt more like a poem than a novel, like it could have been a long concept poem instead of a piece of prose. In some ways, I wonder if it should have been. It was much more about Felix's mind, and the world he sees (trippy and unreal is it is) than any sort of plot; things happen, but they're secondary. As a result, I couldn't say so much that I was gripped or enthralled or captivated, because there was no underlying story thread to catch my attention. But I did find myself looking for answers in Felix's search, and the beautiful narrative was rewarding in itself.
I don't habitually read such 'literary' books -- I've always been more interested in books with an obvious plot -- but this was an interesting one, with the interplay of dreams and reality. It reminded me a little of 'The Dream Life of Sukhanov' by Olga Grushin, one of my favourite books, because of that breakdown of the border between wakefulness and dreams, but I felt it suffered from not having enough of a plot to support those explorations and emotions.
But, that's probably just because I tend to read less introspective, character-based books.
So yeah, it was a little hard to decide what I thought of it. Was it good? It was well-written, and it had a lot of emotion in it, but I didn't come away from it feeling like I'd gone through some life-changing experience. I won't be pressing it into the prone hands of everybody I meet, but I might be sharing pretty quotes with them via Tumblr, you know? It's that kind of in-betweeny sort-of liked it and sort-of wished there was more plot feeling.
This was, for me, rather an odd read. It was beautifully written in places -- dozens of lines that I highlighted because they were gorgeous. In many ways it felt more like a poem than a novel, like it could have been a long concept poem instead of a piece of prose. In some ways, I wonder if it should have been. It was much more about Felix's mind, and the world he sees (trippy and unreal is it is) than any sort of plot; things happen, but they're secondary. As a result, I couldn't say so much that I was gripped or enthralled or captivated, because there was no underlying story thread to catch my attention. But I did find myself looking for answers in Felix's search, and the beautiful narrative was rewarding in itself.
I don't habitually read such 'literary' books -- I've always been more interested in books with an obvious plot -- but this was an interesting one, with the interplay of dreams and reality. It reminded me a little of 'The Dream Life of Sukhanov' by Olga Grushin, one of my favourite books, because of that breakdown of the border between wakefulness and dreams, but I felt it suffered from not having enough of a plot to support those explorations and emotions.
But, that's probably just because I tend to read less introspective, character-based books.
So yeah, it was a little hard to decide what I thought of it. Was it good? It was well-written, and it had a lot of emotion in it, but I didn't come away from it feeling like I'd gone through some life-changing experience. I won't be pressing it into the prone hands of everybody I meet, but I might be sharing pretty quotes with them via Tumblr, you know? It's that kind of in-betweeny sort-of liked it and sort-of wished there was more plot feeling.
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