Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods by Matt Bell

1 review

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I didn't mind the dreamlike weirdness like I didn't struggle too much with that I love weird sh¡t and the beautiful evocative writing carried this story but by 60% I got sick of all the repetitive wordplay phrases and how much could this guy say without saying and saying everything without saying anything at all. Even the author ended up remarking it near the end with this lol “How he spoke ceaselessly because like most men he could not sing, and because he could not say anything without too many words.” Despite the tediously long prose I found the themes of unresolved parental grief after miscarriage(s), false expectations, the relationship between a man and woman who despite loving each other don't know each other, and how some men tend to assume their happiness and needs like those of their spouses to be the same, that what they wish is what their spouses wish too, how people refuse to see two people as a family if there's no children, and how sometimes parents take all the loss children and whatever they had expected of that dead child onto the one they end up raising very insightful even with the magic realism taking the bulk. There's probably a lot more I didn't get and probably what I got is wrong lmao but I'll leave it at that bc the added shrouded mystery makes this more interesting. I gave it a 3.5 bc it got boring 60% in and I couldn't think of anything else but reaching the end during those seemingly endless passages. Without chapter 4 I think this story would have triumphed better for me.
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