A review by megelizabeth
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this, having had it sitting on my shelves for ages and having heard so much about it over the years. It's a slow, dense read, and not at all an enjoyable one, but definitely a fascinating one overall. The ending also really surprised me, and it's definitely well-written and cleverly thought-out as a whole. The main thing that stopped me giving this a higher rating is that, while the protagonist is clearly deliberately unlikeable, there were times where it wasn't clear whether particular awful things were purely Eva or instead were reflective of the author's views. I also really struggled to see any real love or connection between Eva and her husband, which made that element of the story (and it's quite a big one) super hard to care about or link with everything else.
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