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liloopie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Pure anguish from start to finish! This book is a gut check I couldn’t but feel for Eillish. Her despair with her choices and the losses she has to sustain are so, palpable that it leaves your feeling gritty, and anguish in your heart. Although the ending was not wrapped up in a pretty bow, it’s fitting since the plot is catastrophic. Thus, the ending is just is fitting due to the acidic nature of the story, It’s hard to say you enjoy the story, but rather you survived the experience like the characters. Deeply moving and sorrowful, Paul Lynch, writes a beautiful very disturbing story that makes you question your own sanity of this very disturbing dystopian story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Death, Dementia, and Dysphoria
boodrow's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This is the first time in my life I have devoured a novel in a day. It is a literary page turner full of suspense, horror, and sadness.
It asks you what if the tragedies that are occurring in Gaza, in Ukraine, and anywhere else that children are killed, families are separated, and homes obliterated - what if that happened to you?
And the natural answer for anyone in the Western world is, “Well, that would never happen here,” but this book shows how such complacency can help precipitate a gradual descent into authoritarianism and the conflict that inevitably results.
“Soon he will walk and then he will run and the hand that pulls on the hand of the mother is the hand that will pull to let go.”
The thing that will stay with me the most: Paul Lynch describes suburban domestic life - particularly the stresses of parenthood - with such clarity that the dystopia in which it is played out feels incredibly real and all the more devastating.
It’s a tough read for a parent, but an incredible book and the best Booker prize winner there’s been for a long time.
It asks you what if the tragedies that are occurring in Gaza, in Ukraine, and anywhere else that children are killed, families are separated, and homes obliterated - what if that happened to you?
And the natural answer for anyone in the Western world is, “Well, that would never happen here,” but this book shows how such complacency can help precipitate a gradual descent into authoritarianism and the conflict that inevitably results.
“Soon he will walk and then he will run and the hand that pulls on the hand of the mother is the hand that will pull to let go.”
The thing that will stay with me the most: Paul Lynch describes suburban domestic life - particularly the stresses of parenthood - with such clarity that the dystopia in which it is played out feels incredibly real and all the more devastating.
It’s a tough read for a parent, but an incredible book and the best Booker prize winner there’s been for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Confinement
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
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