Reviews with content warning for Death - Swim Home to the Vanished

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham

5 reviews

alexisgarcia's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

i think this book would do well being read with someone else. i got incredibly lost as to what was happening, who/what the characters were, the timeline, etc. maybe i read it too fast? i’m not sure. the writing was beautiful tho.

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jan_coco_day's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

As a work of literary fiction about grief, transformation, and a mythological journey to a remote land inhabited by vengeful witches, this book should be my jam. But I couldn't get into this one. That is entirely due to a personal character trait that I brought to the book as a reader, not to the book itself.

The writing is gorgeous, and the book leans into emotion, eschewing narrative structure at times in favor of haunting atmospheres of what it feels like to swim/drown in a sea/river of mourning.

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