**spoiler alert** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, tou**spoiler alert** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the book's subject matters & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters that contain reflections on the death of an animal, infidelity, suicide, substance use, sexual image-based abuse (i.e. nonconsensual pornography), theft, & others.
The tingle of a promise, ominous, loathsome, looming, renders the threat ticklish, gruesome, & exciting. When a promise is not kept, when something is hinted at, only to be forgotten, one is sunken in quicksand by the angelic hands of a friend. Literature that engages the tonal shift of enticement, one that lingers just outside of the deliberate letter, twinges inside the iris of the reader; the next page will hold something more; the scene that follows shall make clear what the smog has cloistered. Yet, the writer whose tone escapes them, like a mime who screams out in terror, leaves readers with disappointed spittle soaking their bib, where the saucy delight of broken ribs should have been.
The author & I have met through her work in the past. When I first read Setton’s work “Berlin” (2022) I hoped to find the delight of oddity. The promise that lingers in the synopsis of Setton’s works breathes air into rotting lungs. Readers, like myself, who enjoy a challenge will be deflated upon completing the windmill-style turn through her plots but, readers who are unlike me will revel & gloat at the feet of the feast she presents them.
Both of Setton’s books appeal to a reader who is looking for a challenge. These readers are not seeking out Plato’s “The Republic” (375 BC) or Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” (1967), nor are they coyly ruminating on Yiyun Li’s “The Book of Goose” (2022). Rather, these readers enjoy the bizarre colours of a palette left unused; enough to make them tongue-tied when reality seeps its curious fingers into the spine & paralyzes the story where it stands.
These readers are fond of the odd as long as it remains caged; they long for the horror that can be seen through the screen of a protective visor; they are habituated with the heart’s murmur after a branch snaps in the woods. However, they do not seek to go outside the confines of their comfort. I do not begrudge them for this, in fact, I applaud their self-awareness. Setton writes for them & I am sure their hunger will be appeased by her second novel.
In essence, this story follows Anna as she pursues her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2020. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread its wings & altered her inflated egotistical approach to life; she meets a handsome man & they have sex; her friends are smart & vapid all at once. The story follows her throughout the banal realizations that she comes to. She meets herself head-on, watching her actions in reflective services & in the whites of the eyes of the men she covets & yet, in the end, another woman is the magnificent beast that towers over the castle & castrates the love she seeks to possess.
Of course, this is an oversimplification. Anna sees a car crash, she has her diamond earrings stolen, & she is responsible for the death of a cat & multiple members of the rodent family. Anna is also a person who is allowed to make mistakes. She invests all her time with a beautiful man because he is beautiful & she is not. This makes her feel of value when all along she claimed to be better than women who were granted the blessing via their genetic code. The purpose of the narrative seems to encourage readers to empathize with Anna while also degrading her for the harm she causes those around her.
The semi-automatic format of this story left me disappointed & winded. I had succumbed to the enthusiasm granted to me in the opening scenes; a dual car crash, a chase in the roadway, pounding fists of violence, a runner, & first responders who never arrived. Yet as the novel roared onward, these scenes—my promise of horrors set to be unearthed like the ravenously broken jaws of a corpse—never gave the reader, or the story, more than what they had at their introduction.
The cars were driven by Caden & Jack, brothers who sought out Giselle, the woman turned monster as a consequence of having everything. The absence of first responders was nothing but a fluke & if you live in a city not unlike my own; this ominous fiction is also an unfortunate reality.
For reasons I cannot quite explain, I read this entire book hoping that Setton would return to her work. The pause of the tone of malevolence that she incorporated early on was all but abandoned, as though the woebegone banality of a woman self-declaring herself smarter than others was worth all the pages she dedicated to her. I suppose that at some point I decided that the crudely boring nature of the seesaw was something I could masticate; it was no loss to me to spend a few hours waiting in the wings for Anna to become the villain I knew she could be.
I have been clear-cut with my disdain for the lack of direction in tone & trajectory in this story. However, I did read the entire book. As I have said, there are reasons for this, some of which I might not be able to discern but, should I take a moment to reflect, it is no secret to me that the primary reason I was able to do so was because Setton’s writing is easy to digest.
There is no depth to the vernacular that is employed, even when the characters are expressing the depths of their theologies. This is not something I find fault in, rather it is helpful to approach this style of story with monotonous language that engages every reader; one need not be a theologian or astrophysicist to comprehend the underbelly of the women’s studies at Cambridge.
On the other hand, the links that formed between subjects explored, both among the characters & the flow of the story could have been allowed to seep further into the plot. That being said, I am not certain that Setton wanted to write a devoutly amoral & overall heinous story.
My conclusion is that she wrote the story she had in mind; I appreciate her efforts & her success in doing so. This leads me to ruminate on feelings of vexation; I know she could have done more.
This book is a prime example of what it means to attract a person who is unlike the self. I know I am not the target reader & I would be hopeful in stating that Setton might agree. There is a part of me that longs to encourage her to go deeper, to drive home the homilies of terror that linger just outside of her spider’s web but, this is not what she has wanted to do.
This review should not act as a call to action; the author has written out page after page about a character who can be forgiven by the right audience. Setton’s story is about a woman who is still very young. The main character is twenty-three & as someone who was once this age, a moon or two ago, I understand how very juvenile a person of this age is, in reality, now that I am no longer shooed in this very space by birthdays & sentient holidays.
Her mistakes are quite horrible & her decision to remain engaged in a rumpus dull relationship with Caden is boring but, Anna is still growing. The world has yet to open itself to her. When she speaks about her childhood & the nature of her family dynamic, the reader will note no horrific trauma; there exists only the sullen nature of a rainy day & parents too egotistical to care.
Do not mistake me, I firstly do not wish for anyone to be traumatized, it is a rather despairingly drunken state to live in. Secondly, the minutia of Anna’s experiences are not ones I seek to diminish. Rather, I highlight her family life, her upbringing, & her character as markers of a person who has not necessarily had the opportunity to be faced with the terrible things that do exist, in plain sight.
Anna’s father is a beast, like many men—many women, if we are being honest—he wants his wife to be thin, he has opinions that are always correct & he cannot accept the nature of nuance that exists in the human species. Anna’s mother is frail & angry, she does not seek to escape her cage as it defines her as a woman of the house; a kept flower in the forest burnt to a crisp.
Neither parent is particularly spectacular. Feeding your children wet dog food ranks rather uncomfortably as a nasty thing to do. However, Anna has an inflated ego as a result of the comfort of her home & therefore is poorly prepared to deal with the ferociously complicated nature of real life.
During the earlier parts of the story, I found myself displeased with Anna & entirely uninterested in what she had to say. She covets the nature of her superiority as though readers have not walked the streets of life, once, if not twice. I found her character entirely dull & yet, she was the narrator. From some point in the future, she felt within her a challenge & desire to tell us a story. This same story ends when Giselle, Caden’s ex-girlfriend, follows her down the path to what one might assume is her death. This leads me to the nature of the secondary & tertiary characters.
Setton fleshed out her characters well. By nature, this story is not profound & does not explore the depth of the situation at play. It will not come as a surprise to readers such as myself that the story ends on a distinctly ambiguous note.
As I read, I wanted to have the story told to me by someone who would be honest. I did not trust Anna to be able to be clear with her thoughts or her experiences. She transformed everyone around her into villains. Perhaps, Caden did commit suicide & perhaps, Giselle is riddled with regret for the pain she caused. The reader will never actually understand the parameters of what is truth as Anna does not look to speak it.
Truthfully, I did not hate this story. I will seek out Setton’s work again. However, I did not like this story either. I did not want to accept that there was nothing more to this story than a peculiar triangle meshed with sodden lake water & drowned in disregard.
There is a scary story that can be found awaiting the curtain behind the nature of reality that is often cocooned within bulbously tepid stories. Anna toyed rather romantically with death on more than one occasion & she felt it her due to live on. Her pleas to die were to the void, something she knew would never answer her. Would it be cruel to say she is a coward for calling into the Dark Matter to have a desire fulfilled while she is aware that it cannot deliver?
Ultimately, the body of this text is dull because it altered the course I wished to run; I wanted servant’s bodies & biblical slices of clay & skin to render my hands into anguished clusters. Instead, I was met with a monotone girl who is blonde & thin; she is educated & well-off; her goals are achievable & people will forgive her cruel naivety because one time she cried alone.
How utterly unforgivable it is to forget that Anna is also a person who engaged in sexual image-based abuse. Therefore, forget, the reader shall not. In life, forgiving & forgetting seems to be done in tandem & maybe Anna will be able to bloom into a person, unlike the one we met in this book. However, one must not forget that consequence is often the lingering encourager behind change.
I peruse the muddy river & those early rising who breathe a mist that flows from the mouths of the silent people in Cambridge like a ghost, haunting the very streets that hide bombs underneath. A narrator’s cool temperament does not excuse a boring tale. No lore can reinvigorate the tonsils extradited from the cavity of the mouth, so one must therefore choose whether to speak or remain silent.
Were the diamond earrings worth hiding in plain sight? Was the secret worth keeping that killed the cat who sought out the warmth of a cave of wonders, Anna could not invade? What is certain is that the freedom to leave off here is mine to hold & yours to accept & so, with these words we part ways, possibly never to meet with this sordid tale of fictional sadness, ever again.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, & Bea Setton for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, tou**spoiler alert** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the book's subject matters & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on the consequences of war, extreme violence, body mutilation, racism, bigotry, grief, mental illness, & others.
Much of the world is ravaged by our individual need for preservation. Skipping the line at the coffee shop, sneaking an unpaid avocado in your purchase, teasing out a rumour, gargling lies—we are no strangers to the minute ways in which our lives can be led by striving for our own needs. Many of the ways in which we seek to preserve ourselves are at the mercy of shadows. No one is going to combust if we skip the line at the coffee shop, no matter how much their red rage convinces them otherwise. But, what if we thought about how the time in which we decided to avenge our own need, saw the agency of another dashed?
We drift devilishly close to Chaos Theory in these pondering moments but, what I am driving at is rather more simple. I wonder what might happen if, in each of our actions we thought of the consequence our decision posed on another person. Certainly, we might say that to do so would be to remain stationary for life. We are inevitably poised to cause harm to one another, if only as a consequence of living in such proximity to each other. Therefore, let us round out the question to a grander scale. Skipping the line at the coffee shop will not send someone into exile but, what if ignoring the barbaric practices of a dictatorial government does?
Here we have a rather extreme, if poignant, scenario that is easy for people to remove themselves from. We can say as forcefully as we want that the past shall never occur again. Yet, it continues to do so. It is simple to state that people who hold power will do as they please & we have no power to change their choices. How can both things be true? How can we structurally believe that life is as it is—nearly existentially—while promising that terror will never rain through the human species again? Unfortunately, they cannot live in tandem.
This book presents readers with a simple scenario & one which drives home the questions that I was asking at the beginning of this review. Why were specific groups of people put on the front lines to be massacred by opposing forces? The answer is simple if depleting—because according to some people, one life is worth more than another. For many of us, this is not a new phenomenon. Many people have to hide in the shadows or, if you will, in plain sight not to suffer a shower of bullets to the brain by people who are too mentally inept to be using automatic machinery of any kind.
If life had been valued at all we wouldn’t have had wars, let alone be witness to the brazen murders that suffocate our species. Part of the wonder of this story is that nothing is necessarily as explicit as it is in real life. Alfa does not need to tell the reader that the French soldiers forced those that are Black to the front lines because Black people were seen as disposable. This is something that every reader can witness for themselves. He did not need to tell us the complexities of having a parent stolen from you from an unconfirmed disappearance & from grief because these are things that we can witness for ourselves.
Though this story appears to wander in circles it represents the circular nature of our thoughts & our history. We speak so openly about the casualties & horrors of war. Then, we turn around & bomb cities where children sleep simply because we can. All the while, back home we are complex individuals who led lives before we became the haunting figure of nightmares we will never visit. Alfa is a nightmare to those whom he killed viciously under the guise of avenging a friend. Alfa knows that this is a lie just as much as we do.
The reason why Alfa has chosen to remember enough of his life up until this point is a mystery. Why is he recalling the last night he had in his hometown? Why do we need to believe that sex makes a person grown? What part of love allows someone to suffer? Circling around the point is what Alfa does best. He allows the reader enough insight to encourage us to believe that he is lost within himself but, I do not think that is the case.
Certainly, Alfa is traumatized. Whether or not he has the freedom of acknowledging this fact is another story entirely. The person with whom he was closest in the entire world was wounded in war, cruelly & horribly. Alfa was not able to set the person that he loved free. The reader can wonder for all the money in the world if they would have done differently but, here we find ourselves looking into our own reality once more.
With that being said, the narrative that this story undertakes to translate Alfa’s inner thoughts veers on the messy & muddied words that do not allow the reader to follow Alfa’s train of thought. I suppose that was the point. Alfa lives through numerous horrific events by the time he is twenty (20) years old & he will never go home again.
What is the reader meant to take from this story where the main character walks in circles trying to hide things from the reader? What feelings is this meant to illicit? Every reader might take something different out of the meandering of watercolours, sketches, boiling war trenches, severed hands, bloodied organs, wet pleasure, & dry eyes of the main character. Ultimately, this is a sad story. We know that Alfa does not survive the things that occur around him. Ever the more hopeful that life will change, he seems to grasp onto dreams that weren’t his, under the guise of having a plan.
To take the hands of men during a war is to take away agency. It is to tell those around him that he does not care for freedom. This is a practice that is old & barbaric; once more we find ourselves with the past within our midst. We can hypothesize about the singular pull that led Alfa to sever another person’s hands & to replay the death of his best friend. We can study his methods & interpret his desire to alter the scenario as any compassionate individual might long to do. Maybe, this time around when he kills the blue-eyed villain, Alfa will set his friend free from the suffering that his body experienced when his soul was sawing his bones to fly free.
When all is said & done, I found this novella interesting if not a little empty. We miss out on parts of the main stage because Alfa is consumed. This is not to say that I think that this decision is bad, certainly, it works in the case of this story. I suppose I feel that the book was missing something but then again, I am met with my own words—the emptiness is all around us with breadcrumbs leading us to the answers; the starting point of pain, sorrow, vapid concave heartbeats dulled by humanity’s penchant for destruction.
Though this is not a book I might recommend to all readers, it is certainly a book that makes me wish I could set Alfa free from the confines of the pages where he will meet a reader once more at the start of his story & where, in the end, he will be just as he has been with me....more
There was no way for me to be prepared for what I found within the pages of this book. So unprepared was I that I found myself laughing out loud at thThere was no way for me to be prepared for what I found within the pages of this book. So unprepared was I that I found myself laughing out loud at the strangeness of this book’s nature. In these moments of humour, I found myself with the comforting sentiment that young children will love this, as much as I did in adulthood.
There are no words within this picture book which makes it the ultimate story for those who may not be able to read aloud, those for whom words carry no weight, those for whom words are an unknown, or simply for those like myself who enjoy the strangeness of art. The beauty of this book is that it can be consumed by anyone for there are no linguistic barriers in imagery; everything can be just as much itself as it can be whatever you wish it to be.
I think that young readers will find an abundance to enjoy & appreciate within this book. I believe it will remain a story that bridges the transition between our introduction to books through our journey into literature. As the young character walks home from school, she passes the windows that reflect the soul of the house & all the people, things, & creatures within.
I am so glad to have gotten the opportunity to read this & I am so happy to be gifted the knowledge that readers will be able to have their first experience wandering through these deliciously detailed pages, as I have today.
Thank you to Edelweiss+, Kids Can Press, & Marion Arbona for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on the death of a loved one, grief, physical illness, mortality, & others.
On the night of her 8th birthday, Nora is far from being in a celebratory mood. She misses her mother & cannot fathom welcoming a birthday without her; life is not the same & never will be again. Her father offers her his best words of encouragement & comfort as he gifts her one of her mother’s prize possessions, a music box. What ensues is a world-bending adventure that sees Nora become the hero to an ailing woman & her two (2) desperate children who seek to offer her medical aid in the world of the music box.
My first impression when reading this comic strip was that much has changed since the times in which I used to roam the library shelves for the French comics of my youth. Carbone's work, having been originally written in French, does not accurately translate into a story that is as warm as I know it would have been in its original language. I am glad to see the diversity in plot lines; the reality that many children are parented by a single figure, whether that be a biological one or not, needs to be addressed in literature & I am glad that this is present throughout this story. However, the essence of the narrative is lost in the speedy language of English.
So many moments of this story felt like a translation. That is not to say that the translator did a poor job but that what was trying to be said could not be translated. The world in which Nora lives is brimmed with fantasy & lore; nothing is ever as it seems. However, nothing is actually given to the reader so we might deduce that for ourselves. We hardly got a moment to know Nora before we see her dive head-first into a music box to save someone who needed help. Later in the story, we learn that Nora’s mother was a nurse & that Nora learnt a great deal from her. Yet, the intermingling of her ever-present grief with this odyssey quest does not leave me with any semblance of enthusiasm for the narrative.
The story flies by in such quick succession that I was curious to know why Nora, a girl who is seemingly able to set aside her own fear, sadness, & emotions to help another person, would not be blown away by the monstrous figures that inhabit this land. We certainly do not need a long-drawn-out scene for this to be showcased but, some extra pieces of dialogue would bode well in crafting the world & the characters so that they appeared to be entities with depth & beings who lived lives outside of the scenes in which we meet them.
This aside, I believe that this story would be a welcomed series to all those young readers who might wish to see the ghoulish differences that exist within the Fantasy genre, in something of a beginner step in their journey. This book would serve as a lovely commencement to a lifetime of love for all things magical & cinematic. The illustrations by Jérôme Gillet paint this world to be one that is a rainbow of detail & sunshine. I was immediately in awe of the vivacity of the colour scheme & the effort that went into ensuring that this tale was told through the eyes of a person who sees the world for all the beauty it holds.
I would recommend this book to young readers, younger than Nora, who might be able to better appreciate the choppy transition of dialogue & scenes; appreciating the land, the sky, the background & the lore they hope to encounter in the next instalment.
Thank you to NetGalley, Capstone, & Bénédicte Carboneill ("Carbone") for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
In an ode to the creeping forces found in the fairytales of old, this picture book explores the adventures of a young protagonist—perchance the one reIn an ode to the creeping forces found in the fairytales of old, this picture book explores the adventures of a young protagonist—perchance the one reading the book at that very moment—through a race against the monsters who scares them. The protagonist hides in Classic stories told to children with more gore & gusto than many of the Horror novels of today; wolves gobbling grandmothers, witches boiling abandoned children in the woods. Though these stories have now been tampered & teased into submission for the general consumption of all, within this book, their hidden origin dost lie.
With that being said, though I have not put a content warning within this review I will say that this is a case wherein many children whose temperaments are on the more gentle & sensitive side, might not appreciate this so much as the children who crave the curious & bizarre. Therefore, I will advise that if you are seeking this book for a young one in your life, please be aware that the imagery is abundant in detail—keep that young reader in mind when gifting this read.
I know I would have loved this story as a child because I was in fact someone who was brazenly curious about everything outlandishly illogical—something I have not given up in my adult years. The illustrations within this book are a testament to hours spent perfecting the craft & diligence in a league of its own. I adored everything there was to read & see & notice; everything hidden until found.
There is a great deal to appreciate within this story. I would wager to say that the role of stories plays a very prominent part in the vanquishing of monsters—of fear. When the protagonist halts his hiding, he realizes that through all the stories he has read he has found refuge from his fear. With everything learnt through stories & tales, the protagonist was able to confront the unknown.
Though I am sure that this lesson is beneficial to all, I stand by what I said at the beginning of this review; this is a story for readers like me, once children who roamed shelves unafraid of wolves, tired-eyed-monsters, & the crazed lunacy of aged sorceresses waiting for orphans. I appreciated this story very much for the lurch down memory lane. A jaunt over the bridge where it all began; in the pages of a book & whence I remain, snug as a seedling in the soil, cozied between the words on the page.
Thank you to NetGalley, Gecko Press, & Clotilde Perrin for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on suicide, grief, parental abandonment, the death of a child, bigotry, psychological distress, financial insecurity, the consequences of war, & others.
Before moving forward I would like to dedicate a separate word of praise to the translator, Aneesa Abbas Higgins, whose stunning efforts brought this novel to light in a language different than the one in which Shua Dusapin wrote from the heart.
Claire has no part in any of the places in which she lives; she belongs nowhere & no group of people seek to welcome her when she arrives. When the reader meets Claire she is making her way to the apartment of Madame Ogawa whose child, Meiko, she will be dedicating several hours of companionship towards in the hopes of helping her improve her French. What ensues is the struggle that Claire experiences between the person she was throughout her childhood & early adulthood on the impending eve of her thirtieth (30) birthday.
This book presents so many aspects of lived reality while simultaneously leaving the reader with the comfort that what they have experienced while reading the story, resides securely within the pages. This novella opens us to the world of a girl who is no different than I am. In all honesty, we find each other in this dance between character & observer at the exact same moments in our lives. I found this aspect to be particularly poignant. It is a special encounter which leaves us faced with a version of ourselves not available via a mirror’s image.
What makes Claire such a brilliant character is the fact that she is simply presented as being herself. The author presents no airs towards the world she crafts & does not dedicate pages at length in a plight to convince the reader of the people they will meet within the plot. This alone is an exceptional feat. Within the first couple of words we are given I was familiar with Claire, she was an old friend, she was a neighbour, & she was myself. As her life moved forward in the midst of boiling summer days & confusing afternoons, I recognized the life that has been mine as much as it could have been having been born in her shoes.
I always find it difficult to review novellas because to write such short, precise, prose is a talent all on its own & I am left reeling with the overwhelming feeling of gratitude; coming upon a story so brutally sincere, there is nothing left to say, the author has covered it all. Yet, in that same breath, I want to write for pages at length about all the emotions I experienced & describe how the sun beat down on me in the same way it beat down on Claire while she walked to the train station & when she stood in line with little Meiko feeling confused about the passage of time.
There is so much desire in me to give this review everything this book gave me & yet, I cannot because the author has given it all in the very best possible way. I am therefore left feeling that this book should be consumed on its own because there is nothing anyone can write that might come close to describing the absolutely mundane experiences of Claire while simultaneously exploring the realization that we age—we die & so do our loved ones.
Having said that, I do not think this will be a book that everyone will appreciate or enjoy. Using the word ‘mundane’ was not done in error—this entire story covets two neighbourhoods & casual encounters with few other locals. Claire doesn’t speak very much to the reader in any way that would leave them with a surplus of information, she ultimately says little of anything ever, at all. Most of the emotional depth that is explored within this story takes place in action. Therefore, if you are someone for whom innuendos & puzzles are not what you prefer to read, I would not encourage you to try this book.
This book is a puzzle in that life is a mystery to us all. Claire lay on the floor of a room she visited throughout the years of her life & knew little of the people who lived in the home. Could we assume that her grandparents were more comfortable with sharing their life stories with Matthieu because he was a stranger? Might we deduce that Claire’s feeling of existentialism derives from a community & family that kept quiet even when it mattered to be heard?
The ending of this book felt very overwhelming to me. Perhaps this is because nothing was resolved—Claire is not granted more time with her grandparents & she is given no further opportunity to connect with them. When they wave goodbye I felt sadness bubble through my heart; I wish she had been able to get from this visit what she had wanted. Maybe this is the magic of those we love. They can be present for so long & appear to be omniscient beings but, one day there is a passage of farewells & then, it’s the end.
I cannot say that I want to put so much of myself into this review because I am not that way inclined; I don’t need you to know me to understand why I loved this book. However, I want you to know Claire & in a certain sense you will end up knowing us both. This story truly presented a singularly casual aspect of existence, transpiring during any random summer months, & highlighted it as being a raw series of events that reflect the realities of this life.
In all, I feel humble & grateful to have had the opportunity to read such a brilliant piece of literature. Claire will remain with me, wriggling in my mind like a worm; her actions a reflection of ones I have opted to forget yet kindly welcome back into the orifice of my being as a flower blooming through wet soil.
Thank you to Edelweiss+, Open Letter Books, & Elisa Shua Dusapin for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
**spoiler alert** To be frank, the concept of the story is interesting & really very creepy. A man who lives inside the walls of an Opera Theatre & es**spoiler alert** To be frank, the concept of the story is interesting & really very creepy. A man who lives inside the walls of an Opera Theatre & essentially bullies the owners into funding his life & escapades all while terrorizing the performers. Then, you learn about the reasons for which this phantom man has chosen to live inside the walls of the theatre & the story becomes even more weird & terrifying.
I had only known about "The Phantom of the Opera" thanks to modern remakes which I can't say I ever watched, though their soundtracks (particularly the 2004 version) are something I have always appreciated. You might imagine my surprise when reading this original piece & Leroux describing the Phantom as a man whose physique is severely decaying due to illness & quite possibly his surroundings.
His features hold no apparent beauty, he is entirely disfigured & has advanced jaundice. To add to this Erik, or the Phantom is a psychopath. Without revealing too much of the plot, the reader has a chance to learn more about the Phantom thanks to a person from his past who has made his way to the Opera Theatre. Through this person's explanations, we learn that Erik has a hearty history of murder & torture which he has brought with him to the walls in which he now resides.
I've read reviews where people express a great lack of enthusiasm for the torture room that Erik has built inside the walls. However, if you think about it, that room is a terrifying contraption; people are literally left to overheat & die as their skin peels off their own bones. As well, people are driven to hang themselves once driven to madness. I wouldn't say that Leroux gave the torture room any less than a great deal of thought.
My main reason for not absolutely loving this story was the two main (minus the Phantom) characters. Christine is so annoying I had a hard time feeling bad for her & admit that at one point I even wished she would just stay with Erik so we didn't have to keep reading about this back/forth scenario between her & Raoul. She is definitely a reflection of her time as her personality is never explored & instead, we're meant to adore her because she grew up with a musical father & has a wonderful singing voice.
However, Christine is a weak character. She is so deliberate in her desire to believe in the concept of an Angel of Music that she ignores all the hard evidence around her for months. She then disappears & no one seems to really care, which leads me to ponder her impact on the group. How does someone from a select group of people who all know each other very well, disappear & the only person to kind of notice is a man she knew when she was a child?
On that note, Raoul is not my most favoured character of all time. His tunnel vision when it comes to Christine & the love he thinks they might share prevents him from having any rational thought or ever fully listening to her when she's retelling her experiences with the Phantom. When Christine tries to give subtle hints to Raoul that the masked ball is not a safe space & that she cannot express a return of his feelings he becomes irate & calls her profanities. It's hard to appreciate a character who is so disconnected from reality.
Overall, this is not a horrible story. There are many aspects that reveal the time in which the story was written & the audience with which it might resonate. However, it's a short story & there are many aspects to appreciate (mainly the horror). I truly enjoyed this book....more
Un tout petit livre, une toute petite histoire qui demeura avec moi en esprit pour toujours&à jamais.
Pendant ma jeunesse je me suis retrouvé à être seUn tout petit livre, une toute petite histoire qui demeura avec moi en esprit pour toujours&à jamais.
Pendant ma jeunesse je me suis retrouvé à être seule à ne pas avoir lu ce roman. J’aimerais bien pouvoir indiquer une raison concrète, mais ce fut tout simplement parce que cela n’a jamais adonner. Voilà qu’en voyageant de retour au Canada j’ai trouvé mon moment, après tant d’année.
L’histoire suit les aventures du petit prince qui habite une planète solitaire. Celui-ci nous fait part de ces questions philosophiques concernant l’amour&l’amitié. Nous traversons l’univers avec le jeune protagoniste tout en apprenants des leçons importantes vis-à-vis nous-mêmes êtres humains.
Il n’est pas évident de pouvoir distinguer qu’un détail de l’histoire comme étant celui qui m’a le plus touché, qui m’a viré de bord. En terminant ma lecture je me suis sentie un peu coupable de n’avoir pris un moment auparavant pour lire un roman qui est rempli d’autant d’amour.
Je vous encourage tous&chacun de poursuivre la lecture de ce livre. Je suis certaine de me retrouver entre les pages de l’histoire à nouveau au courant de ma vie&dans les années à venir....more
Les pensées de Sartre me fascineront toujours. J'ai bien apprécié les explications, les examples et le sujet en général. Ce fut une bonne petite lectuLes pensées de Sartre me fascineront toujours. J'ai bien apprécié les explications, les examples et le sujet en général. Ce fut une bonne petite lecture....more
Avec toute sincérité Victor Hugo est parmi mes écrivains préférés. Sont talent avec les mots et sa capacité de rédiger un roman si puissant en prose mAvec toute sincérité Victor Hugo est parmi mes écrivains préférés. Sont talent avec les mots et sa capacité de rédiger un roman si puissant en prose m'impressionne de plus qu'il ne m'est possible d'exprimer. Cela étant dit, j'avais hésité à embarquer dans la lecture de ce roman. Tous savent qu'Hugo n'est pas un écrivain qui se retient; s'il est nécessaire d'écrire des milliers de pages pour décrire la presse, il va s'y prendre.
Au cours de ma lecture je ne me suis pas sentie comme si on me faisait perdre mon temps. Même ayant des chapitres pleins et plus contenant des détails qui sembleraient nullement lier à l'histoire de base, tous les passages m'ont touché. Chaque passage contient de l'information pertinent et des événements qui se relient à l'histoire de fiction nous lisons.
Les personnages sont divers, intéressants et compliqués; elles sont honnêtes et réelles. Hugo nous fait part de la vie de divers parisiens et le lecteur à la chance de suivre leur séjour à travers la ville; pendant qu'ils espèrent éviter la persécution, le crime, le scandale et les coups de coeur.
Le roman nous fait part de plusieurs thèmes très difficiles à digérés. Les personnages n'ont pas la vie facile ni vont-ils tous retrouver une belle fin. Cependant, j'ai tellement apprécié l'histoire pour cette raison et pour toutes les autres aspects aussi. Ce livre demeurât l'ultime classique sans compétition. ...more
Ce roman fut facile à lire & à apprécier. Nous sommes, dès le début, présenté avec une situation très attristante. Pourtant, même en sachant la concluCe roman fut facile à lire & à apprécier. Nous sommes, dès le début, présenté avec une situation très attristante. Pourtant, même en sachant la conclusion je n’ai pas trouver la lecture de ce lire indésirable. Les personnages sont bien placés; leurs environnements reflète bien leurs intentions en tant que personnes en société et en tant qu’être humain. Cependant, disant cela, il faut que j’avoue que je n’ai pas trouver le roman autant une réflection des classes économiques qu’une simple histoire qui mets-en part les relations variées entres personnes.
Les complexités que nous voyons dérouler au travers de l’histoire peuvent être connectés à des situations économiques ou provenant des conséquences de nos décisions. Par example, le fait que la nounou ne puisse ce permettre de payer sont loyer même ayant un emploie (que nous assumons tient un salaire assez idéal) peut d’un côté être la conséquence des debts de sont époux ou une conséquence de sont manque d’organisation monétaire. J’aimerais souligner que je ne porte aucun jugement peu importe.
La conclusion de l’histoire est comme je l’ai indiqué, très triste. Cependant, nous pouvons bien nous posé la question: quelle est la raison pour ces événements? Est-ce que la nounou se sentait dispensable? Est-ce qu’elle avait peur de ne plus avoir un endroit en dehors de sa réalité auquel elle pouvait se cacher des ses problèmes? Est-ce que le stresse qu’elle portait avec elle au courant de sa vie lui a bouleversé? J’assume qu’il y a plus qu’une raison. Et voilà ou se trouve la réalité dans la littérature....more
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