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laujane's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A deeply emotional read, with many sections that left me floored. While wordy at times, this novel has conveyed a level of emotions which feel intensely personal. If nothing else Second Place is unique.
“If you have always been criticised, from before you can remember, it becomes more or less impossible to locate yourself in the time or space before the criticism was made: to believe, in other words, that you yourself exist. The criticism is more real than you are: it seems, in fact, to have created you. I believe a lot of people walk around with this problem in their heads, and it leads to all kinds of trouble—in my case, it led to my body and my mind getting divorced from each other right at the start, when I was only a few years old.”
“If you have always been criticised, from before you can remember, it becomes more or less impossible to locate yourself in the time or space before the criticism was made: to believe, in other words, that you yourself exist. The criticism is more real than you are: it seems, in fact, to have created you. I believe a lot of people walk around with this problem in their heads, and it leads to all kinds of trouble—in my case, it led to my body and my mind getting divorced from each other right at the start, when I was only a few years old.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content
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