Reviews

Nebeská tělesa by Eleanor Catton

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claire_dobson's review against another edition

3.0

A decent enough storyline but I failed to be emotionally connected hence the lower rating. I have however read it whilst suffering with acute lower back pain so maybe my mood is to blame for the lack of connection. I may well re read it in a few months.

haileyprevett's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

reagaaaan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-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

Excellent who done it and so much detail and world building

annevblij's review against another edition

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4.0

Je moet er even de tijd voor nemen en misschien alle personages neerpennen en wat-deden-ze-ook-alweer. Maar ik vind het een meesterlijk boek. Een heerlijk ingewikkelde detective met veel verschillende gezichtspunten, eerlijke persoonsomschrijvingen en pas aan het einde heb je door wat er aan de hand is. Heerlijk!

jessplayin's review against another edition

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2.0

The first quarter of this book grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. The rest of it however felt like it was pushing me away the whole time. Several person narratives are fine if you understand how to handle them properly but Catton repeats almost entire sections of the story to catch you up to a different person's perspective. The repetition made me want to scream. I loved the experimental style of this book but I cannot recommend it as it feels anticlimactic as hell at the end. Long journey with little payoff.

hadeanstars's review against another edition

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4.0

Quite the undertaking, both in sheer quantity - it's a mighty tome - and in complexity. You can approach this at several levels and most of those levels will be rewarding, but only to a point. I have the advantage of retaining a high degree of astrological insight, and much is made of the astrological lexicon used in the chapter structure of this novel. Does the working knowledge help? Yes and no. Catton clearly knows her astrology, but on the surface of things, the insights are not deep. Take as an example Lowenthal, the newspaperman, who is cited as Sun in Gemini. His long, thin fingers are always coated in printer's ink. It works, we have the Geminian style; but it's not deep.

Spoiler

Then at another level, and I only learned this later, the novel is a work of genius. Much is made of Anna's missing bullet. We know there is a connection with Emery Staine's injury, a bullet wound to the chest, that manifested from nowhere. If we remember that both Anna and Emery were born at the same instant of time, then we can infer a supernatural connection between them. Anna's bullet somehow passed between them. When later, while Anna spent her second sojourn with Lydia Wells, she was eating well, free of her opium addiction, and yet, losing weight and growing weaker with each passing day, we can assume that she was sustaining the dying Emery instead. When Anna and Emery meet, they discuss the albatross, a bird that has 'weight' is 'mythical' and is like a guardian angel. The fate is forged between them as it is between the albatross that follows the ship halfway around the world. A kind of symbiosis resonant of the symbiosis of cosmic twins as they are.

So therein lies the genius of the work, but it is not at all easy to see. In a way, the novel is too clever for its own good, because this supernaturalism is not accessible in the way it should be. At the more superficial level it's a good, clever, solidly written book. The historical authenticity feels rich and true. The characters are perhaps a little one or two dimensional. Dickensian as my friend would say. But certainly it is rewarding enough. But without the astrology it doesn't really make sense, and even with it, the method isn't clear enough. When you know, you know, and you can be amazed. A truly Mercurial masterpiece, but not enough Neptune for my liking.

kerrence30's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was quite difficult to get into and to like, but once the pace picked up the story flowed better, and it was easier to take. The plot of the story was very interesting, and in a setting I have not read about before, nor particularly considered. This element was refreshing and encouraged me to persist. The mystery was complex, which mostly kept me entertained but the characters were not particularly interesting. They were intentionally unlikable I suspect, which is fine, but it was my own drive to finish this story that spurred me on, not the intrigued the story should have inspired.