A review by orionoconnell
Brida by Paulo Coelho
1.0
This was a case of 'I wanted so badly to like this but I didn't'.
I don't know if it was a case of reader error where I just wasn't in a place within my own life to connect with the book, or if it was the book that just felt tangled up. I absolutely adored Coelho's 'The Alchemist' and went into this thinking 'Irish witches with Coelho's life lessons, I'm in for a treat!'
What I got just felt...confusing and disjointed? The main character felt one dimensional to me. The contrasts between magick / witchcraft and Christianity felt... off to me in a way I can't describe?
I've always been interested in magick, but have never pursued it, and call myself 'spiritual' in a sense that I kind of just vibe with a whole lot of different feelings. I did grow up in a Christian household, and while I don't practice those beliefs myself - there was so much entanglement between different religious beliefs that it just...for some reason made me feel uneasy spiritually? Given, I have NO IDEA of the accuracy portrayed in this book so I could be 110% wrong, this is wholly a personal vibe, again, coming from someone who doesn't subscribe to religion or at least singularly one religion.
The parables were a little harder to follow in this one than in 'The Alchemist'. There was a lot of what read to me as black and white thinking particularly in femininity and masculinity, and the matters of love and this too just left me feeling a little off. And I wonder if I just...missed the point and if there's something deeper in this book that I should have picked up on, or if it was just disconnected and confusing and didn't really tell a story?
The characters were flat, the sexualization made little sense to me, the parables made little sense to me, the journey felt underwhelming to me, and the explanations didn't impress.
I wholly respect other people's viewpoints and am very open to being educated on religious and spiritual topics I know nothing about. I also know that a very dear friend of mine adores this book. Maybe one day I'll give it another go. But this wasn't the read for me: the believer of all things love, goodness, and magick.
I don't know if it was a case of reader error where I just wasn't in a place within my own life to connect with the book, or if it was the book that just felt tangled up. I absolutely adored Coelho's 'The Alchemist' and went into this thinking 'Irish witches with Coelho's life lessons, I'm in for a treat!'
What I got just felt...confusing and disjointed? The main character felt one dimensional to me. The contrasts between magick / witchcraft and Christianity felt... off to me in a way I can't describe?
I've always been interested in magick, but have never pursued it, and call myself 'spiritual' in a sense that I kind of just vibe with a whole lot of different feelings. I did grow up in a Christian household, and while I don't practice those beliefs myself - there was so much entanglement between different religious beliefs that it just...for some reason made me feel uneasy spiritually? Given, I have NO IDEA of the accuracy portrayed in this book so I could be 110% wrong, this is wholly a personal vibe, again, coming from someone who doesn't subscribe to religion or at least singularly one religion.
The parables were a little harder to follow in this one than in 'The Alchemist'. There was a lot of what read to me as black and white thinking particularly in femininity and masculinity, and the matters of love and this too just left me feeling a little off. And I wonder if I just...missed the point and if there's something deeper in this book that I should have picked up on, or if it was just disconnected and confusing and didn't really tell a story?
The characters were flat, the sexualization made little sense to me, the parables made little sense to me, the journey felt underwhelming to me, and the explanations didn't impress.
I wholly respect other people's viewpoints and am very open to being educated on religious and spiritual topics I know nothing about. I also know that a very dear friend of mine adores this book. Maybe one day I'll give it another go. But this wasn't the read for me: the believer of all things love, goodness, and magick.