Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Prophet Song

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Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

48 reviews

timmytunter's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Prophet Song is an unflinching and emotionally brutal portrayal of a nation spiralling into war. Paul Lynch’s novel grips the reader with its intensity, pulling you into the heart of a society on the brink of collapse.

What stands out most is Lynch’s exceptional prose. His unconventional descriptions of everyday moments breathe life into the narrative in ways that are unexpected yet striking.

For instance, when describing a simple exchange, Lynch writes:

She finds herself watching the face so intensely she is met with the feeling of an existence unalterably separate from hers, can feel her smile uncoupling from her face, the smile sliding past her jaw onto the floor.

Or this vivid depiction of a tender yet tragic moment:

What has been stored in the body, what has been locked in the heart gives release through Molly’s mouth into sobbing…We have entered into a tunnel and there is no going back, she says, we just need to keep going and going until we reach the light on the other side.

Lynch’s writing is both beautiful and harrowing, capturing the emotional toll of life under siege. The novel’s intensity weighs heavily, and while I found it incredibly powerful, I have no desire to read it again—not because it’s a bad book, but because of its emotional heft. The experience was profound, but draining.

That said, Prophet Song is a novel everyone should read at least once. It exposes the jarring and tragic realities of life in a war-torn country in a way that will leave you both shaken and reflective. The devastating truth is that this depiction accurately reflects the reality for many in our world today, a fact which is cause for pause, reflection, and action.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I think the idea of the story was interesting but I hate this style of execution and it was really hard to concentrate on the story. Some plot events had me super engaged

um bailey dying?? Wtf

but like it took me so long to remember the names of the kids and I felt like the mum could have been more proactive, especially in the second half

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swivelhead's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Distressingly relatable against the backdrop of what's going on in various countries around the world in present day (cliche as that sounds), but this book does the dystopian Orwell-esque storytelling really well.

However, at the core of it is the grounded story of a mother (Eilish) trying to hold her family together against the aforementioned turmoil and war that I found really powerful. The writing style is a little atypical/challenging, but I really enjoyed it (I can see how others wouldn't though).

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novelspirits's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Blindness (Saramago) meets Handmaids Tale (Atwood) with a sadness rating of A Little Life (Yanagihara). A mother does her best to keep her family together as her home country is torn apart.

I shook reading the last 40 pages, I’m still pulsing with nerves. I’m not sure what to do with myself now except probably invest in a humanitarian cause or two. This book will stay with me.

A top five book/ all time.

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