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seventhswan's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This one's for the gifted and mildly traumatised girlies who had a weirdly intense, homoerotic friendship in high school that never went anywhere and fizzled out around the same time that their giftedness did... but in 1950s rural France. Which is a relief, or I might have thought parts of the book were about me. Everything in this story was impeccably constructed and I felt genuinely sad for both Agnes and Fabienne throughout, despite - or perhaps because of - some of their actions being borderline indefensible. I've been loving novels with rural settings lately and this was a huge win on that front too.
I do wish the novel hadn't opened with Fabienne's death. I think it would have been more impactful to not be certain what happened to her until the end of the book. Otherwise, though, I could have read a book twice as long about these characters and their world.
I do wish the novel hadn't opened with
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal death and Child death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Racism, and War