Unfortunately predicatable in plot. Interesting that though the entire book is written from Felicity's point of view, I never felt like I knew who she was, not really. Even at the end, she just seemed to be a blank face with tropes draped over her. Many of the other characters came alive, but when your main character is so hollow, that's difficult.
That being said, I did enjoy the read. Of course the atmosphere is wonderful. I just wished there was something a little more solid to hold on to.
That being said, I did enjoy the read. Of course the atmosphere is wonderful. I just wished there was something a little more solid to hold on to.
Ex scientia ultio
Out of knowledge comes vengeance.
I really wanted to like this much-anticipated book, but just couldn't get there. In its defense, it's smartly written with highly visual, evocative prose, but it's also interminably slow, and relies on unrealistic descriptions of characters as a substitute for a well-developed and appropriately-paced plot. It's a pretext at a "psychological" thriller - mainly madness, grief, imagination in a psychologically fragile adolescent dealing with a recent trauma, and potentially real supernatural experiences evoked by ambient environment and deeply rooted superstition (not unlike forebearers of previous centuries, simply called by another name) ... but it doesn't quite make it.
I just couldn't get past all the flaws. Some of its most grievous sins were the almost laughably unrealistic, precocious attributes bestowed upon most of the main characters: the way they're portrayed, they would need to be in grad school, not high school - prestigious prep school or not - at least, to be even remotely credible. Pulitzer-winning high-school-girl novelist? Good luck with that. First-year grad student? Maybe. Teenage high school girls swilling tequila and bourbon at on-campus parties? If someone squealed to administration, or, worse, a parent (which, knowing teenage girls, is inevitable), the place would get shut down and the adults responsible for failing to stop it arrested, compounded by the fact that someone actually died after getting drunk at an on-campus party and falling into a lake. Still going on? Criminally negligent. Teenage girl who has summited Everest twice? Not in this lifetime. These unrealities just make this book nearly unreadable, because it's so difficult to get beyond these fantastic and unrealistic portrayals. I get that this is fiction, but it should at least be believable.
Also: it's a clear example of the present-day practice of writing to a "checklist:" lots of token, stereotypical, stock characters that check all the boxes: LGBTQPOC etc., - gotta get all the letters in there lest someone be under-represented - which seems artificial and fabricated at best, and, at worst, pandering. It's unfortunate, as it could be a decent story, but it seems to walk on eggshells around all the characters, for the aforementioned reason. The greatest weakness, however, is that it's just so slow: you keep reading for nearly 300 pages, just waiting for something to happen, but nothing really does until the last quarter of the book; it doesn't even really build to a suspenseful ending, so most of the narrative is akin to wading through mud. Just nothing really interesting ever happens, and when it does, it's just as unrealistic and unbelievable as the rest of it.
A last point: there was also some annoying cribbing that I noted, in which other works are cited but not credited (and should be, in my opinion); there's more than one instance, in fact, but the most blatant: the passage, "Alex was many things. She contained multitudes," or something to that effect... that's from a rather famous quote by Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), which reads âDo I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)â Too much of a coincidence for me.
I don't like writing bad reviews, as I appreciate that it's someone's art, but I just couldn't avoid it in this case, if I'm honest, as finishing it just became a chore. I would say that if you're into stories about teenage girls and their seemingly universal obsession with witchcraft, it might be worth a read, but it's so slow and boring that it's really not worth the time and effort; there are so many more with similar content that are so much better
Out of knowledge comes vengeance.
I really wanted to like this much-anticipated book, but just couldn't get there. In its defense, it's smartly written with highly visual, evocative prose, but it's also interminably slow, and relies on unrealistic descriptions of characters as a substitute for a well-developed and appropriately-paced plot. It's a pretext at a "psychological" thriller - mainly madness, grief, imagination in a psychologically fragile adolescent dealing with a recent trauma, and potentially real supernatural experiences evoked by ambient environment and deeply rooted superstition (not unlike forebearers of previous centuries, simply called by another name) ... but it doesn't quite make it.
I just couldn't get past all the flaws. Some of its most grievous sins were the almost laughably unrealistic, precocious attributes bestowed upon most of the main characters: the way they're portrayed, they would need to be in grad school, not high school - prestigious prep school or not - at least, to be even remotely credible. Pulitzer-winning high-school-girl novelist? Good luck with that. First-year grad student? Maybe. Teenage high school girls swilling tequila and bourbon at on-campus parties? If someone squealed to administration, or, worse, a parent (which, knowing teenage girls, is inevitable), the place would get shut down and the adults responsible for failing to stop it arrested, compounded by the fact that someone actually died after getting drunk at an on-campus party and falling into a lake. Still going on? Criminally negligent. Teenage girl who has summited Everest twice? Not in this lifetime. These unrealities just make this book nearly unreadable, because it's so difficult to get beyond these fantastic and unrealistic portrayals. I get that this is fiction, but it should at least be believable.
Also: it's a clear example of the present-day practice of writing to a "checklist:" lots of token, stereotypical, stock characters that check all the boxes: LGBTQPOC etc., - gotta get all the letters in there lest someone be under-represented - which seems artificial and fabricated at best, and, at worst, pandering. It's unfortunate, as it could be a decent story, but it seems to walk on eggshells around all the characters, for the aforementioned reason. The greatest weakness, however, is that it's just so slow: you keep reading for nearly 300 pages, just waiting for something to happen, but nothing really does until the last quarter of the book; it doesn't even really build to a suspenseful ending, so most of the narrative is akin to wading through mud. Just nothing really interesting ever happens, and when it does, it's just as unrealistic and unbelievable as the rest of it.
A last point: there was also some annoying cribbing that I noted, in which other works are cited but not credited (and should be, in my opinion); there's more than one instance, in fact, but the most blatant: the passage, "Alex was many things. She contained multitudes," or something to that effect... that's from a rather famous quote by Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), which reads âDo I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)â Too much of a coincidence for me.
I don't like writing bad reviews, as I appreciate that it's someone's art, but I just couldn't avoid it in this case, if I'm honest, as finishing it just became a chore. I would say that if you're into stories about teenage girls and their seemingly universal obsession with witchcraft, it might be worth a read, but it's so slow and boring that it's really not worth the time and effort; there are so many more with similar content that are so much better
