Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - This Must Be the Place

Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell

17 reviews

repeatt's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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eloisesal's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was too much. Too many characters, too many storylines, too many themes, too much drama... But somehow it worked, it's so beautifully written and devastatingly realistic despite the very unlikely things that happened. Maggie O'Farrell writes characters and relationships so well that it feels like your own life after a while. I did get frustrated sometimes: things that could have easily been resolved if two people just talked to each other, one of the last chapters being told from the pov of a totally new character with no relation to the plot... But then it ended up just making sense and I forgave it.

I could smell the cigarette smoke and fresh country air the whole way through.

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jhansell's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jesssalexander's review

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sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

There was entirely too much going on here!! Too many characters, too many plot lines, and too many flashbacks and scene and perspective changes. And, differently, too many heavy topics all jammed in!

I thought this was going to be a fun read about a quirky movie star turned recluse and her family in Ireland but actually it’s mostly about a middle aged man with substance abuse issues who ruins his future while trying to reconcile his past.

My two favorite scenes centered around Marithe, Daniel’s youngest daughter. There is a moment when she is grieving over her half-brother’s departure for boarding school and she is mean to her pet chicken. I can’t remember exactly what she and Claudette say to one another but I remember thinking it was so poignant. Also later when she is reflecting on her own adolescence and crossing over into adulthood and says this: “To never feel that again, that idea of yourself as one unified being, not two or three splintered selves who observed and commented on each other.”
Everything was so well put. Like she could never be that child again who was wholly present and fully doing one thing. It was a neat conceptualization.

I thought it was interesting that one of the main motifs of the novel was Daniel’s impotence when attempting to form relationships with his children. First there is the abortion he doesn’t want his girlfriend to have, then his ex wife thwarts all his attempts to connect with his first two kids, then the senseless gun violence, and lastly Claudette imposes a separation from his last two kids when his drinking gets out of control. I suppose part of his redemption arc is how he finally bonds with Niall. I’ve been puzzling over why the reader roots for Daniel— he’s pretty objectively terrible, he cheats on his girlfriend the day after her abortion— and I guess it has to do with this motif. He wanted so bad to have a relationship with his kids so you end up wanting things to work out for him.

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