Reviews

Animals by Keith Ridgway

monsty's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement

mazreads's review

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A really interesting novel detailing an emotional and mental breakdown of the main character after encountering a dead mouse. The story twists and turns with an increasing (and perhaps always so) unreliable narrator becoming more paranoid. The text could be challenging with backtracking and other characters' own reported soliloquys, but it felt interesting enough that I think this will become a regular reread for me. 

This novel strangely reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, in it's steam of consciousness style with the overly mindful and yet completely un-selfaware narrator.

After finishing this book, I thought I would discover it was cult classic that I missed the hype for, instead there wasn't very much on the book in general and less on the likes of Goodreads etc. I'd recommend the book just so I can see it receive the discussion it deserves.

Also, and this might be a strange thing to write in a review, the pages of the edition I bought were very thick and the print was really dark. It made the book feel a little luxurious and made the text a little more dyslexic friendly (I since have discovered that Ridgway is a stationary enthusiast, although I don't know if this was a factor in the publishing).