A review by politicat
August Blue by Deborah Levy

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

2.5

this did not match my expectations. the writing was all over the place and it read a little too much like a wattpad story. she was trying a bit too hard to place and date her stories - too specific references to her location and the covid stuff. there were also some slip ups, like misgendering her nonbinary student once in the middle of a longer passage. then she refers to a piano as the “yahama”. she uses the correct pronouns for her student and brand name for the piano two sentences later so I don’t understand why the errors were left in the final edition. these quirks made the story hard to follow. i also did not feel much for the characters, they felt underdeveloped even though we got to know quite a lot about them. the reveal of woman in the end was also very anticlimactic. would not recommend