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quirkykayleetam's review
adventurous
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a "love it or hate it" book that is dark, macabre, and delves in weird religious spaces. I read it for book club where the best description of it was "a dark fairy tale."
While historically based, the novel features circular storytelling and adventure so fantastical to tie everything together at the end that it feels like one of the character's half-true tales told straight to the reader.
I enjoyed the commentary on the ways that unwanted people managed to survive in a world that forces them to extremes, from its one-handed protagonist to its roof-living dwarf and marriageable factory workers who toil in horrible conditions but protect their own.
The book's pacing is hard to explain. It seems like a "normal" historical coming of age novel like The Whipping Thief until the halfway point when it becomes a lightning- fast charge of murder and mayhem until the end.
Be prepared for grave robbing, Catholicism, and overall macabre menace.
While historically based, the novel features circular storytelling and adventure so fantastical to tie everything together at the end that it feels like one of the character's half-true tales told straight to the reader.
I enjoyed the commentary on the ways that unwanted people managed to survive in a world that forces them to extremes, from its one-handed protagonist to its roof-living dwarf and marriageable factory workers who toil in horrible conditions but protect their own.
The book's pacing is hard to explain. It seems like a "normal" historical coming of age novel like The Whipping Thief until the halfway point when it becomes a lightning- fast charge of murder and mayhem until the end.
Be prepared for grave robbing, Catholicism, and overall macabre menace.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, and Vomit