A review by findyourgoldenhour
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
2.0
*Unpopular Opinion Alert!*
Ugh. I can’t remember the last time my expectations were so high and the reality was so low.
This should’ve been an easy home run for me! It’s right in my wheelhouse! Literary fiction about a couple over the course of their 24-year marriage, told from the point of view of the husband for the first half, the wife the second. A book about marriage and friendships and family, a book that asks you to consider if you can truly know a person. Sounds good, right?
Sigh. The characters in this book are so completely unlikeable, I didn’t care what happened to them. It’s one thing if you have a high wire thriller like [b: Gone Girl|19288043|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397056917s/19288043.jpg|13306276], where you are supposed to recoil in horror at their behavior. Part of the fun of books like that is reading about characters you love to hate. But this was supposed to be a novel, you know? They weren’t compelling or interesting to read about; they were just super annoying and mostly awful. It reminded me of Johnathan Franzen’s [b: Freedom|7905092|Freedom|Jonathan Franzen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316729686s/7905092.jpg|9585796]. That is not a compliment.
And ooh boy, the sex scenes. So many bad sex scenes. Listen, I’m no prude. I enjoy a hot book scene as much as the next middle-aged white lady. But every time the author needed the characters to interact in any meaningful way, any time she wanted to convey any kind of intensity or real connection, she defaulted to sex. I literally rolled my eyes at one point. It just seemed so lazy.
I really liked her short story collection [b: Florida|36098092|Florida|Lauren Groff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1510685620s/36098092.jpg|57682000]. She is a good writer! I’m not sure what happened here. This book has a lot of fans; I’m just not one of them.
Ugh. I can’t remember the last time my expectations were so high and the reality was so low.
This should’ve been an easy home run for me! It’s right in my wheelhouse! Literary fiction about a couple over the course of their 24-year marriage, told from the point of view of the husband for the first half, the wife the second. A book about marriage and friendships and family, a book that asks you to consider if you can truly know a person. Sounds good, right?
Sigh. The characters in this book are so completely unlikeable, I didn’t care what happened to them. It’s one thing if you have a high wire thriller like [b: Gone Girl|19288043|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397056917s/19288043.jpg|13306276], where you are supposed to recoil in horror at their behavior. Part of the fun of books like that is reading about characters you love to hate. But this was supposed to be a novel, you know? They weren’t compelling or interesting to read about; they were just super annoying and mostly awful. It reminded me of Johnathan Franzen’s [b: Freedom|7905092|Freedom|Jonathan Franzen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316729686s/7905092.jpg|9585796]. That is not a compliment.
And ooh boy, the sex scenes. So many bad sex scenes. Listen, I’m no prude. I enjoy a hot book scene as much as the next middle-aged white lady. But every time the author needed the characters to interact in any meaningful way, any time she wanted to convey any kind of intensity or real connection, she defaulted to sex. I literally rolled my eyes at one point. It just seemed so lazy.
I really liked her short story collection [b: Florida|36098092|Florida|Lauren Groff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1510685620s/36098092.jpg|57682000]. She is a good writer! I’m not sure what happened here. This book has a lot of fans; I’m just not one of them.