serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Three is a deeply- layered, slow burn of a novel. It centres on Nina, Adrien and Etienne who meet as ten year olds and form a deep and abiding friendship, albeit one that has its ebbs and flows, challenges and a major breaks. We see their childhood and teen years and then meet them again in their forties, when a car is pulled from a lake with a body inside. The characterisation is excellent, the many threads of the plot deftly handled as Perrin carefully and meticulously weaves them together in this beautifully written novel. The story takes some unexpected turns and covers some difficult terrain. I really enjoyed Perrin’s quiet, powerful and satisfying storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death
Moderate: Abandonment and Miscarriage
Minor: Transphobia
morebedsidebooks's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
“There are no simple friends.”
Inspired in part by another reflective novel Lie with Me, Valérie Perrin crafted Three a lengthy tome of three childhood friends over decades and the haunting disappearance of an 18-year-old girl they knew. Yet, told with an interesting narrator named Virginie. A journalist who seemingly knows everything about the three and begs the question of how. Another mystery that there is no simple way to write about. Keeping this as a reveal is a choice that is very open to critique.
Further an interesting question in Three is about people’s stories. How they are turned into mass media and by who. Whether culled in the process of reporting, absorbed into entertainment by true crime, or transformed by literature. Three seems particularly aware of the media around us, too, even having its own sort of playlist with music becoming an indelible part heightening experience. Yet in general, this fiction book can at times feel too long. (Available translated by Hildegarde Serle the audiobook narrated by Elisabeth Lagelée is likewise slow.) It’s a work caught up in literary devices, excessive detail or bound in tidy conclusions. The latter life rarely offers. But perhaps sometimes as it’s put “Novels are for writing what one is incapable of doing in real life.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dysphoria, Abandonment, Cancer, Misogyny, Transphobia, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Death
Minor: Animal death, Car accident, and Abortion
izza_bluebell38a's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
stacyroth's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
When Adrien, Etienne, and Nina meet in school at 10 years old in 1986, they immediately become inseparable. They made a promise to move together to Paris as soon as they grew up and never part, but something happened along the way, and the three no longer speak. When a car is pulled from the bottom of a lake in their hometown in 2017, Virginie, a local reporter, covers the story while remembering the trio and how close they had been.
Clocking in at 21 hours, 25 minutes for the audiobook version, we slowly learn about the friendship between Adrien, Etienne, and Nina and how they got to where each is in 2017. The plot unfolds slowly but gives you a lot to think about as it does so. I hesitate to say more about the book for fear of giving away spoilers, but I definitely recommend checking out this novel!
Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage and Emotional abuse
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