A review by kristinana
The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai

4.0

The structure of the novel is the main thing readers will focus on, and rightfully so — I liked seeing the pieces of the puzzle fall in place and the little moments when you see a piece of information get lost to time. But what I admire more is how tonally, stylistically, the parts seem distinct. I want to study Makkai’s sentence structure to see how she did that (though some of it is the difference between, say, the comedy of the first part versus the tragedy of the second.) I enjoyed the first part, which was found refreshingly funny, but for gothic tragedy the second part can’t be beat.

Overall, a bit uneven and somehow not quite deeply felt enough for me to love it, but very clever.