Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Sobre os ossos dos mortos

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Sobre os ossos dos mortos by Olga Tokarczuk

15 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

2.0

hmm. i really don’t know what to think about this book. this is one of the rare times where i read other reviews simply because i don’t know how to describe my thoughts on this.

i really think my expectations for this were set incredibly high, and this book didn’t meet them. i mean it’s in NYTs top 100 books of the 21st century (voted by the public) so i expected something….. More. i mean the author won a nobel prize! i expected to be enthralled but instead i was mildly interested.

the main character felt one-note. after a while, her only talking about animals or astrology became frustrating. there felt as though there wasn’t much to her, until the penultimate chapter, but even then it couldn’t save my opinions of her throughout the story.

the plot seems to meander, not really doing too much. there’s a death, then the mc yaps about eccentric topics, a death occurs, and wash rinse repeat. i’m not really too big a fan of stories without a driving force, and it really just felt like i was reading one of those recipes online where the author writes 45 paragraphs before the actual recipe. like homegirl i don’t give a shit about how animals are murdering everyone… i just want you to be solving this shit! i was expecting this to be a real mystery, but it felt like the ‘plot’ of the deaths took a back seat, which was really odd. i did find some things the mc talked about interesting philosophically, but then it was peppered with the words of a mad man. idk i didn’t find i had any feelings towards the mc, therefore i wanted to rip my hair out every time she rambled.

this book felt like it was ‘stream of consciousness’, and sorry i can’t fucking stand books like that!!! i at least need SOMETHING to connect the book. although the deaths were that link, and the book is marketed towards the mystery element, it felt as though they were brushed past instead to focus on the 7th paragraph about how the mc hates animal cruelty. like i’m with u girl but at the same time you have no discernible personality outside of that.

i really tried to like this, and at times i was tangentially intrigued by the book, most of the time i was just like “….meh”. i really hope this is just an issue of this plot and not of the actual writer because if it’s the latter…… girl.

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breadbummer's review against another edition

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funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Can we please get more books narrated by weird old women??? Because of this type of main character, I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this. I'll admit, it did seem kind of slow to me in some parts but, even at these sections, just like with Duszejko's love of astrology, paying attention to the tiniest details is key to figuring out what's going on. I definitely had my suspicions as the book progressed, but I was still glued to the page when everything was revealed.

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carojust's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I'd read Olga Tokarczuk write about paint drying.

This was so much fun -- unreliable narrator, small clues everywhere, small town characters and cozy soups, forest animals and bugs. And as an astrology girlie, I couldn't not enjoy the extensive musings on birth charts and aspects; I knew these parts would lose a lot of people, and that's what's so incredibly ingenious. This all created a mystical world guided by the laws of nature, and our narrator the omniscient and moral light in the cold night.

I really love that this narrator is an older woman, who reminds us constantly how she's dismissed as a lunatic, and largely ignored and forgotten by the community. It's especially brilliant in the unraveling.

I highly recommend this if you are interested in translated fiction, sleuthy mysteries, and really beautiful, intelligent writing.

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I saw the reveal coming from the first body. The story dragged in many places and there wasn't a twist to speak of but the characters were all more or less interesting. The prose was well done. I can't speak to the accuracy of the horoscopes being shown but I suppose it doesn't matter if I believe it, so long as Duszejko does.

You can also track the pattern you believe to be real when you are the one making sure a person dies on the specific day their horoscope tells you.

I do wish there was a bit more sleuthing involved but the experience was still relatively enjoyable. Give yourself time to actually enjoy the story but don't expect a fast-past gorefest.

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marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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dark funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As the main character and narrator of this darkly funny novel, Mrs. Duszejko steals the show. A fierce old woman who lives alone in a house on a remote Polish plateau, she has a big personality as an eccentric astrologer, vegetarian, non-Catholic, and translator of William Blake. She patrols the area surrounding her home daily and has a few, select friends. After her neighbor, “Bigfoot,” is found dead, a series of deaths unfolds, but no one will hear her theories about stags and stars. Ultimately, this is a story of a woman in a significant amount of grief. Beata Poźniak’s narration is exemplary—just perfect.

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tjwolf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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noahfence's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

yeah, so. prepare to enter the world of janina duszejko. like, really prepare. its not for the faint of heart.

i have never read anything quite like this book. it is a story that will question your perception of madness, animals, astrology and religion—and you will probably finish it with a very different view of the world.

the plot follows the story of the sickly, elderly woman janina duszejko and her life in a lonely polish village on the border of the czech republic. the book drags you along on her investigation into the strange, unsettling murders of several members of the town’s hunting society, filling you with intrigue, awe—and perhaps horror, depending on your attitude towards animals. do you treat them like they have souls, or not? are you willing to face their wrath?

drive your plow over the bones of the dead is everything i could ever ask for in a book. the weather is strange, the animals are vengeful, the stars are sentient. it is a beautifully dark exploration into feminism, animal rights and murder, and although at first it may just seem like the story of a lonely old women, the prose grips you by the throat and really doesn’t let you go. you will come away from the book wondering if your horoscope could show you how you will die, and if you should really continue eating meat.

drive your plow over the bones of the dead is a deliciously dark read. so go on—take the plunge. 🤭

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rozmaran's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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freckled_frog_boi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Damn.. i don’t really know how to feel about this book.

Idk if i liked or disliked it. It was new though, and I was really engrossed towards the end. I wish there was a bit more foreshadowing, but I guess with an unreliable narrator, they don’t have to tell us everything.

I think this is my first Polish Translated text, and I think some meaning escaped me, but overall I liked the book even if I had a love/hate relationship with the characters.

Beware! Fatphobia and Romaphobia are rampant. There’s also a splash of anti-communism in there as well that could catch me off guard, even though within the location and time period it was common.

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booksjessreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book and honestly was such a mysterious and well written plot line. There is a morally ambiguous narrator and there are so many different themes in the book which are explored. The author has evidently taken care to do a lot of the research into the astrology and other medical content in the book because they are written in much depth. I thought the ending was completely unexpected and gave me tingles when I found out what had happened.

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