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A review by mollymoll44
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
I almost dnfed this book halfway through and I am very glad that I powered through. Highly recommend to physically read, the audiobook does not translate. I tried the audiobook and had to go back and find the ebook, where I enjoyed it so much more.
The writing style is the closest I've found to 100 Years of Solitude (except other magical realism). Sometimes it feels like you're drunk/on drugs experiencing the world/trauma which is so interesting.
Holy Shit this was tough to read because it was so horribly depressing though. So so much abuse towards children and especially women. It's tough because NAH I do not want to read that, however it's based off of real experiences and it's important to represent the struggles of less privileged parts of the world. It was interesting to read the Author's word afterwards and how all of it is about her life growing up, and how others deeply related to it. I find it hard to rate it with this in mind. Often my ratings are off of purely personal enjoyment, and I didn't loooooove reading it. However. It's an undeniably gorgeous book and I believe I will be comparing future reads to this writing. I would give it a 4.75 but I'm docking .25 for thetwin incest. It was so close to making it to the end with them having a normal relationship. I'm sick to death of the twins incest trope. Make a point without incest PLEASE.
The whole point of the book is how higher powers are failing the vulnerable they are supposed to be looking after, to be symbolism for the government failing it's people. But wow, very sad, very tough to read. Absolutely gorgeous writing though.
Crazy that India charged the author with corruption of public opinion after this came out.
The writing style is the closest I've found to 100 Years of Solitude (except other magical realism). Sometimes it feels like you're drunk/on drugs experiencing the world/trauma which is so interesting.
Holy Shit this was tough to read because it was so horribly depressing though. So so much abuse towards children and especially women. It's tough because NAH I do not want to read that, however it's based off of real experiences and it's important to represent the struggles of less privileged parts of the world. It was interesting to read the Author's word afterwards and how all of it is about her life growing up, and how others deeply related to it. I find it hard to rate it with this in mind. Often my ratings are off of purely personal enjoyment, and I didn't loooooove reading it. However. It's an undeniably gorgeous book and I believe I will be comparing future reads to this writing. I would give it a 4.75 but I'm docking .25 for the
The whole point of the book is how higher powers are failing the vulnerable they are supposed to be looking after, to be symbolism for the government failing it's people. But wow, very sad, very tough to read. Absolutely gorgeous writing though.
Crazy that India charged the author with corruption of public opinion after this came out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment