Reviews

I started this book because half of the plot takes place in Bulgaria and I'm always curious to see how westerners see my home country. And in a very eerie way, Isle McElroy managed to portray the strange feeling of displacement that draws you in. It's that same feeling when you come home for the first time in a long time and it's all the same but different and both scare you so much.

But it's the characters I stayed for. In a very strange way, characters and locations merge and intertwine, the same way that Eli and Elizabeth do. And they're very compelling in their approach to the world and themselves.

A sentiment in this book has stayed with me for longer than I anticipated was the realisation that however well you think you know the people you love, you never do. Eli, upon staring at his wife's face, realises that if he were asked to describe her in detail he would fail. We remember people by repetition - how they take their coffee, their favourite food, whether they like to walk, hike, swim, sing... But if you're asked to describe a person will you remember to mention the scar almost hidden by the hair, even if you remember the story about that trip to the ER because at three years of age the table's edge is the perfect height to split your head open?

bugle's review against another edition

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reflective slow-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

2.5

This book really wasn’t for me, unfortunately. I found it achingly slow right up to the end, I didn’t much care for the writing style, and I wasn’t able to care about any of the characters or their relationships. In fact, I found nearly all of the characters pretty insufferable. Some details felt awfully underresearched, too,

like the air travel from Bulgaria to Paris, a 3ish-hr flight, taking from evening til early morning despite no mention of a layover.

Lastly, I would not call this book “gender-bending.” It has far more to do with marriage and relationships than gender, aside from the simple fact that a man and his wife switched bodies.