7danut7's review
4.0
"If I shattered the glass, would I stop seeing my past in sounds, in images, in faint shapes? Would my pain blow apart into a million pieces, pulverized into sand? Perhaps glass and memories are only painful as fragments or shards. Perhaps if they become diminutive and dusty like sand, they grow very tender and soft and granular and almost loveable. Then pain could slip through me and possibly out of me."
meganleriche's review
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
noveltay's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I can appreciate this as poetry, but more than that I guess I did not understand it the way others do.
h4jer's review
4.5
“God is fucking with my oblivion. If he wants forgiveness, he shouldn’t have given us memory.”
makbrandt's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
versmonesprit's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When I first saw this book with the “poetry” label, I thought someone must’ve been confused. Reading on, it became apparent: the book, until the very last part (“Catholic”) reads like prose poetry, and I wish it had kept that lyrical quality to the end.
The chapters focus on how different characters, all involved in the chain of events that lead to the tragedy, deal with the grief of two drowned children whose bodies have never been recovered. As such, aquatic imagery is used often, and you feel like you’re drowning in the densely emotional narration — and you don’t ever want to come out for air.
That’s precisely what knocked this book down from “perfect” to “good” for me: that the final part came out for air. I don’t mean the overcoming of grief, but the sudden rupture of the feeling of being drowned in the narration. Part of it is due to how fragmentary this chapter is, constantly jumping from scene to scene instead of following a continuity. The prose poetry quality eventually returns, but by then the narration has become too mundane to be considered special. Overall, the chapter was too weak to be able to conclude such a powerful book.
I truly wish this could’ve been a 5-star read for me, but I’m sure it’ll be for many others.
The chapters focus on how different characters, all involved in the chain of events that lead to the tragedy, deal with the grief of two drowned children whose bodies have never been recovered. As such, aquatic imagery is used often, and you feel like you’re drowning in the densely emotional narration — and you don’t ever want to come out for air.
That’s precisely what knocked this book down from “perfect” to “good” for me: that the final part came out for air. I don’t mean the overcoming of grief, but the sudden rupture of the feeling of being drowned in the narration. Part of it is due to how fragmentary this chapter is, constantly jumping from scene to scene instead of following a continuity. The prose poetry quality eventually returns, but by then the narration has become too mundane to be considered special. Overall, the chapter was too weak to be able to conclude such a powerful book.
I truly wish this could’ve been a 5-star read for me, but I’m sure it’ll be for many others.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Animal cruelty
vulturetime's review
3.0
I genuinely don't know how to feel about this. It was a bit hard for me to get into the first few pages. There are a lot of metaphors and poetic observations but in the beginning, half of them felt forced. Either I got used to it or it grew to be more natural as the book went on. Overall, I liked the ruminations on grief and how do you cope with that the best (AKA I enjoyed Ethos's and Catholic's parts the best). I do think that Vi Khi Nao is a good writer and she's able to distinguish between character voices pretty effectively. Because a lot of her writing is purposeful, there's a lot of depth to what she writes, though sometimes, I question what the purpose is.
In the middle section of the book, the perspective shifts to Ethos's mother, who, among other things, has an incestuous fixation on her son. There's a connection to Greek mythology, with a pretty biased telling of the story of Demeter and Persephone by Ethos's mother, and I assume that she is placing herself in Demeter's shoes. However, that has uncomfortable implications for how she is saying Demeter views Persephone. In general, there is a connection to Greek myth in the story (though Christianity is also referenced a number of times), and if the incest here is supposed to be parallel to/response to the incest in myth, I'm not quite sure what the greater connection is to the rest of the book or if this was the best way to respond. There are isolated sections, where, yes, this section has ties to other parts of the book (like the mother, Charleen, saying that she sees her husband reborn in her son. Ethos's wife, Catholic, also sees her children in her husband. Both women see him as a reflection of what they've lost) but that could have also been achieved in ways that aren't incest. All in all, the middle section made for a pretty uncomfortable read.
The other thing I question is the fixation on sex in general. There is literally half a page where Catholic essentially goes "Fuck [insert bicycle parts]." I assume that this does have to deal with the whole "being reborn" aspect, since it's through sex that pregnancy happens, pregnancy is new life, and the novel is about how this couple reacts after losing their young children. At the same time, I also am on the fence about the idea of Catholic getting reborn through her children and having the evolution of her sexual life with her husband be parallel to her journey of going through and eventually accepting grief.
Definitely an interesting book with parts I did enjoy, but I do not know how I feel about it.
In the middle section of the book, the perspective shifts to Ethos's mother, who, among other things, has an incestuous fixation on her son. There's a connection to Greek mythology, with a pretty biased telling of the story of Demeter and Persephone by Ethos's mother, and I assume that she is placing herself in Demeter's shoes. However, that has uncomfortable implications for how she is saying Demeter views Persephone. In general, there is a connection to Greek myth in the story (though Christianity is also referenced a number of times), and if the incest here is supposed to be parallel to/response to the incest in myth, I'm not quite sure what the greater connection is to the rest of the book or if this was the best way to respond. There are isolated sections, where, yes, this section has ties to other parts of the book (like the mother, Charleen, saying that she sees her husband reborn in her son. Ethos's wife, Catholic, also sees her children in her husband. Both women see him as a reflection of what they've lost) but that could have also been achieved in ways that aren't incest. All in all, the middle section made for a pretty uncomfortable read.
The other thing I question is the fixation on sex in general. There is literally half a page where Catholic essentially goes "Fuck [insert bicycle parts]." I assume that this does have to deal with the whole "being reborn" aspect, since it's through sex that pregnancy happens, pregnancy is new life, and the novel is about how this couple reacts after losing their young children. At the same time, I also am on the fence about the idea of Catholic getting reborn through her children and having the evolution of her sexual life with her husband be parallel to her journey of going through and eventually accepting grief.
Definitely an interesting book with parts I did enjoy, but I do not know how I feel about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest
glittercherry's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5