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nialiversuch's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Abandonment, and War
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder and Vomit
jayhall's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
...the song of the prophets is but the same song sung across time, the coming of the sword, the world devoured by fire, the sun gone down into the earth at noon and the world cast in darkness, the fury of some god incarnate in the mouth of the prophet raging at the wickedness that will be cast out of sight, and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore...
A masterful and meaningful story that encapsulates the feelings of futility and desperation present in the plights of refugees and migrants the world over, but does so in a way that touches very close to home for Western readers, making the news stories feel as though they could be the life story of a neighbour or colleague, at least to this reader.
The only reason this isn't a 5 for me is the writing style. Lynch foregoes the use of paragraph breaks and punctuation, cultivating rambling, stream-of-consciousness sentences as Eilish jumps from thought to thought. While this effectively conveys the panic and claustrophobia of the narrator to the reader, it made this story slower paced than a feel it could have been, as I often had to re-read and go back to understand what was actually said. I would have preferred something similar that moved the reader along quicker, to really hammer home the panic.
While several plot points were left unresolved,
Overall, an incredible and important novel, fully deserving of the accolades that have come in Paul Lynch's direction!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Police brutality, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Blood, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I will be thinking about this book for a long long time.
An audacious story about the rise of fascism and descent into civil war in Ireland told not through the eyes of those in power, but through the quotidien life of the Stack family.
An audacious story about the rise of fascism and descent into civil war in Ireland told not through the eyes of those in power, but through the quotidien life of the Stack family.
The book did an incredible job of portraying the escalation into war through the lens of everyday choices, capturing so well the constant question of when is the point of no return? When is leaving no longer an option?
The way the author first set up normal life and then took the reader on the ride of a slow drip of conflict escalating into a food, with such emotionality, and with such attachment to character, was incredible. And as the war spiraled out of control, I couldn't help but think of Kfar Aza, and Gaza City, and Damascus, and Mariupol, and everywhere war touches, intruding upon and often destroying the lives of those who just want to live in peace, safety, and dignity.
And this was clearly an intentional choice, keeping the contours of the conflict hazy, and in effect it could be about anywhere, which allows the book to serve as both prophecy and warning. And while at first I found the fact that it didn’t use any paragraph breaks or quotation marks to be difficult, by the time I got to the second half of the book, its effectiveness as a literary device became clear, making the reader feel as if they are in the same panicked stream of consciousness as the characters, bringing us into their emotional state.
It is no wonder this book won the Booker. A truly triumphant work of fiction.
And this was clearly an intentional choice, keeping the contours of the conflict hazy, and in effect it could be about anywhere, which allows the book to serve as both prophecy and warning. And while at first I found the fact that it didn’t use any paragraph breaks or quotation marks to be difficult, by the time I got to the second half of the book, its effectiveness as a literary device became clear, making the reader feel as if they are in the same panicked stream of consciousness as the characters, bringing us into their emotional state.
It is no wonder this book won the Booker. A truly triumphant work of fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Eating disorder and Sexual harassment
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