cattytrona's review
4.0
This book does such a great job of rendering character and place in a way that still feels deeply relevant today. Like, I recognise this Edinburgh, and also these characters and their way of seeing and thinking about the world. Which is maybe more relevant to that first Edinburgh half, but I think the second is doing something deeply interesting and quietly distressing about the way women have to be in the world.
Anyway, maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself. This book did take me absolutely ages to read, so I’m inclined to be a little less enthusiastic because of that, but I was never not interested in what I was reading — it’s just not necessarily easy to get through a bunch of pages in one sitting. Ultimately, with the benefit of not still reading it, I’m glad to have persevered.
The introduction in my copy framed the central relationship as something Bronte/Austen-esque, and I think that was a useful thing to have in mind. It prepared me for to accept some rather dodgy dynamics as romantic within the confines of the story — and it was romantic, it really was. West writes beautifully and vividly of the entanglement of emotional attachment. But that romance is changed (I don’t want to say subverted, because it was already dubious; perhaps further shadowed) in the second half of the story, in some really interesting ways. The violence of the past and its endurance/inheritance into the present, the irreconcilability of motivated morality and natural passion, all of these crash and a destruction is inevitable.
Anyway, maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself. This book did take me absolutely ages to read, so I’m inclined to be a little less enthusiastic because of that, but I was never not interested in what I was reading — it’s just not necessarily easy to get through a bunch of pages in one sitting. Ultimately, with the benefit of not still reading it, I’m glad to have persevered.
The introduction in my copy framed the central relationship as something Bronte/Austen-esque, and I think that was a useful thing to have in mind. It prepared me for to accept some rather dodgy dynamics as romantic within the confines of the story — and it was romantic, it really was. West writes beautifully and vividly of the entanglement of emotional attachment. But that romance is changed (I don’t want to say subverted, because it was already dubious; perhaps further shadowed) in the second half of the story, in some really interesting ways. The violence of the past and its endurance/inheritance into the present, the irreconcilability of motivated morality and natural passion, all of these crash and a destruction is inevitable.
absolutive's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
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