Scan barcode
butteredtoastinbed's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I have such complicated feelings about this book I’m not sure where to begin.
My 4 star rating is closer to a guess than an accurate reflection of my feelings because there were a number of things that manipulated my thoughts throughout reading that I'm not sure where I stand, despite this being a relatively slow-paced book.
The characters (with a couple of exceptions) were pretty insufferable most of the time - but in an endearing and intricate way. Making them feel very real, and although I was not really personally rooting for them, I really did find myself wanting to know how their stories ended and never thought there was a slow section that I wasn’t interested in. I thought the characters were an exceptionally strong part of this story - the voice in which the two POVs were written (and the voices of the secondary characters, too) were so distinctly different (both from each other and from anything I’ve read before) and so rich, I really loved that aspect of this novel and the stories would not be half as good had the voices not been as compelling.
The imagery of the gorgeous settings in this novel is another of its strong suits, which was very important given the nature of the story, and something I really appreciated throughout.
A couple of times while reading I did get the unignorable feeling that this is certainly a woman being written by a man which definitely did pull me out of the story and is not something I enjoy or overlook and it did temporarily dampen my experience.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. I really did enjoy reading it and it was so unique, nasty and raw. I am unlikely to reread this book in the near future only because I like the way the emotions and feelings sat with me as a first-time readthrough.
My 4 star rating is closer to a guess than an accurate reflection of my feelings because there were a number of things that manipulated my thoughts throughout reading that I'm not sure where I stand, despite this being a relatively slow-paced book.
The characters (with a couple of exceptions) were pretty insufferable most of the time - but in an endearing and intricate way. Making them feel very real, and although I was not really personally rooting for them, I really did find myself wanting to know how their stories ended and never thought there was a slow section that I wasn’t interested in. I thought the characters were an exceptionally strong part of this story - the voice in which the two POVs were written (and the voices of the secondary characters, too) were so distinctly different (both from each other and from anything I’ve read before) and so rich, I really loved that aspect of this novel and the stories would not be half as good had the voices not been as compelling.
The imagery of the gorgeous settings in this novel is another of its strong suits, which was very important given the nature of the story, and something I really appreciated throughout.
A couple of times while reading I did get the unignorable feeling that this is certainly a woman being written by a man which definitely did pull me out of the story and is not something I enjoy or overlook and it did temporarily dampen my experience.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. I really did enjoy reading it and it was so unique, nasty and raw. I am unlikely to reread this book in the near future only because I like the way the emotions and feelings sat with me as a first-time readthrough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infertility, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Lesbophobia
xenalia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
2.5
I liked the beginning of Cloris’ story then it kind of trailed off.
Why was the verbiage so weird? It’s set in 1986 not 1886
The weird sentence structure and simplicity of the words worked for Cloris’ small Texas town persona.
But for the weird writing to carry over into each of the characters. It irritated me to the point I almost stopped reading the book.
Examples: From the floor Lewis picked up the bottle of Merlot.
They ate hamburgers and watched from a window rain darken a leathery mendicant who waved roadside a sign of cardboard they could not read. -actual excerpts
I would put quotation marks around the quotes above, but this book doesn’t believe in quotation marks. It makes it really hard to know who or when someone is speaking
Can we stop the no quotation mark trend? Please! This is the second book I have read this year that doesn’t use them.
Why was the verbiage so weird? It’s set in 1986 not 1886
The weird sentence structure and simplicity of the words worked for Cloris’ small Texas town persona.
But for the weird writing to carry over into each of the characters. It irritated me to the point I almost stopped reading the book.
Examples: From the floor Lewis picked up the bottle of Merlot.
They ate hamburgers and watched from a window rain darken a leathery mendicant who waved roadside a sign of cardboard they could not read. -actual excerpts
I would put quotation marks around the quotes above, but this book doesn’t believe in quotation marks. It makes it really hard to know who or when someone is speaking
Can we stop the no quotation mark trend? Please! This is the second book I have read this year that doesn’t use them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, and Grief
Minor: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
More...