Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Trois by Valérie Perrin

2 reviews

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. 

I think it’s better for readers to know there is a trans character and its Virginie/Adrien. The problems of such an authorial deceit aside, it also adds so much more comprehension to sections. Perhaps only some readers initially picking up on things is a staple of mystery. But when one mystery is the gender identity of a major character this kind of decision to obscure or mystify— it can go down a lot of ways.

  I can only speak for myself, but I don’t like this being treated as a spoiler.     

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.” 

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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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Suicide, and Toxic relationship