A review by daisdu
The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this book. It was at times very scary, but it never became too much for me (which is saying something because I'm very easily frightened). The characters are fantastic, I adore the friendships in this book. The audiobook was largely very good, but I did not like the narrator's Russian accent for Zoya and something about their tone every time every time a character mentioned they were gay felt weird. Overall a very good queer book, and I really loved the wide range of varied queer experiences and relationships with homophobia depicted in it. This is a spoiler, but some people might want to know before starting:
It's not a happy ending.
More spoilers that I think are less important to know before reading:
While I don't think it was by any means intentional, it is very uncomfortable, that of the four queer girls this story is centered on, the only one who has a real happy ending is the one who had the queer part of herself magically removed through ghost shenanigans. Eden's end is better than where she started, but it's by no means a happy ending, and Grace got to move on in peace, but she's still dead and her life ended very tragically. Of course, Maeve doesn't deserve a happy ending, but she still contributes to the end of this book being a real L for lesbians.
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