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A review by itsnikraines
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
I won't give the book a rating as I don't believe I am its target audience, but I will share some of my thoughts.
I was intrigued by the title, of course. I enjoy a darker tone in the books I read, and I was excited by the premise: old woman living alone in the middle of nowhere and crimes happen? Sign me up!
Unfortunately, I was disappointed from the beginning.
I could feel my eyes glaze over in many occasions, and I'm not proud to admit that I had to skip over some passages, mostly the ones about astrology.
This was advertised as "mordantly funny", and a "deeply satisfying thriller", but it was neither.
The writing made getting through this book a chore, the culprit was obvious from the start, and the only thrilling bit was me trying to parse through all the nicknames: I understand why the protagonist renamed everyone and everything, but that doesn't mean I liked it.
At some point, I had to look up who the "Little Girls" were because I was sure I had missed something (to be fair, I probably did) and they were mentioned a whole lot.
On the bright side, I did like chapters 15 and 16, as they're where it all unravels and the writing doesn't go on so many astrology-related tangents.
I really don't like musings on astrology, it seems, especially when they're used to put people into boxes.
Still, who am I to say? The author did win a Nobel prize and I am but a simple idiot reading for fun.
I was intrigued by the title, of course. I enjoy a darker tone in the books I read, and I was excited by the premise: old woman living alone in the middle of nowhere and crimes happen? Sign me up!
Unfortunately, I was disappointed from the beginning.
I could feel my eyes glaze over in many occasions, and I'm not proud to admit that I had to skip over some passages, mostly the ones about astrology.
This was advertised as "mordantly funny", and a "deeply satisfying thriller", but it was neither.
The writing made getting through this book a chore, the culprit was obvious from the start, and the only thrilling bit was me trying to parse through all the nicknames: I understand why the protagonist renamed everyone and everything, but that doesn't mean I liked it.
At some point, I had to look up who the "Little Girls" were because I was sure I had missed something (to be fair, I probably did) and they were mentioned a whole lot.
On the bright side, I did like chapters 15 and 16, as they're where it all unravels and the writing doesn't go on so many astrology-related tangents.
I really don't like musings on astrology, it seems, especially when they're used to put people into boxes.
Still, who am I to say? The author did win a Nobel prize and I am but a simple idiot reading for fun.