Piret

Absolutely Bloody Loved It.

Quirky is fine. Stream-of-consciousness is even better. Carrying action through dialogue only is clever. Spitting on social norms and our ethics is sly.
But jumpy (to the point of messy) POV is a nightmare. Pulling the same trick chapter after chapter is tiresome.

Got hardly any work done over two days, because I had to read this instead. Absolutely compelling.

When I clicked “I'm finished” on this one, Goodreads said: “Error!” As in: that's not possible. Goodreads is correct. It is not possible to finish this book. This tedious-tedious detail-ridden madness of a book.
I did finish, however, because the first 60-70 pages had been such good writing. It had injected a hope in me that it will get better in the end, that the end will make sense again. It didn't.
I'm sorry, Mister McCarthy, but I don't even want to understand what you were trying to do there.
I was so bored.

I loved the writing, I loved the wit, I got the humour.
I didn't like the protagonist and how she expected not just life, but also love, to just happen to her. No work to be done. Not that love should be work, but... oh, come on, Sophie!
And... it's very tell-y (as opposed to showy) and it makes it cold. It makes Sophie cold.
And still I have a million bent corners and I can't stop laughing at the elephant joke. Because, don't we all actually just want the elephants.

Informative and fun.

I'm much more into ‘depressing reality' than ‘magical realism'. This book entwined the two and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I wouldn't insist anyone has to read it. But there were very enjoyable moments in here. Oh, and I guess it helps if you have a general understanding of the Finn. Which is a phenomenon hard to describe.

“When she'd returned to Rabbit Back, Ella had consisted of lovely curving lips, faulty ovaries, and a future as a language and literature teacher.”
“Falling in love with a person's momentary being was as irrational as falling in love with the left side of his face, or the back of his head, or some other individual part of him.”
“She had ridden her bike to the school one Monday morning and before she knew it the breeze had wiped away thirteen years of her life.”

After the first 100 pages or so, I was close to giving up. I didn't. And I ended up loving it.

One of the funniest Christie's I've read. Such adorable characters.

There's no point to fight time, but it's still better to not fight it while looking younger than you are. And for that you have to remain curious and smiling. And wear that damn SPF.

I went in with no knowledge, no expectations. Best way to be pleasantly surprised.

I enjoyed the writing, the style (hello, beloved simile!), I liked the characters and their tensions, I wasn't too intrigued by the plot, but I did find myself thinking of purpose and home and the city. It's not just the backdrop, is it?

What bothered me, though, was the plurality of backstories. It got my head spinning and I lost track in the pool of characters. Although it all tied up in the end, I still felt as if there were a few short stories pushed into the novel that shouldn't have been there. Was Kate playing with my attention span? And also, I need closure. So that wasn't great.

Oh.

I lost count of the bottles of wine it took me to get through this thing. I probably only finished it because it excused the wine.

Slow burn. But once it started burning... Oh!

First half was a stuggle to get through, second half was great.

Terrible title, wonderful book.
Wonderful, if you like reads-almost-fully-like-a-backstory type of biographies of six different, loosely connected people.

It???s a good book. Great story, important topic.
BUT.
First part read like a justification essay as much as a story. Kind of weird.
The second part would have benefited greatly from further editing. There were so many niggles that got annoying really fast. Timing, for example, was majorly confusing and off at times. (Like looking for a note a person who died weeks ago sent her ???a few days ago???. Like, from the afterlife?) And then all the weird little inconsistencies and oversights. Like when the group sits in a restaurant and say ???no, we???re not ready to order our drinks yet??? and then three lines of dialogue later their food arrives. They hadn???t even ordered drinks yet! Where do these come from?
Oh, and then there???s the fact that the character who was supposed to be a therapist was the worst communicator of the bunch. Ok, maybe not as bad as the MC. The MC was terrible. And unbelievably narcissistic and self-centred. Everything was about her. ???Oh, my friend is struggling. Hmm, but what does she think about ME???? Seriously terrible.
But nothing in there another round of edits could not have fixed...

The cover promised a Korean-sounding Sally Rooney. It did have that typical detached voice and laconic style, but it was also completely bonkers in a way that was actually interesting.

So intense. So enjoyable.

Drama queen loses husband to suicide. Is privileged enough to try and destroy everything in the process of mourning while completely blind to her own entitlement, privilige and the strain she is to her family. Hates her MIL (who apparently hates her, we???ve never really shown her, so don't really know what's going on) to the point of potent rudeness.
Oh, and the most toxic communicator in the group is a psychologist. The f*ck now?
But: the style is so up my alley I could have written it. Enjoyed it immensely. Want to read more from the author.

Sometimes it's not too bad when someone states you the obvious. Although, there was also some interesting new information. Still, this book could have easily been about 150 pages shorter. Not sorry I read it, anyway.

Took me forever to get through this. The swiftly shifting POV between characters that sounded exactly the same kept me losing concentration. I was constantly trying to figure out which one's which... So read this when you have the time and the mental space to really focus.

This is not a novel, it's a diary of a tweenager. An absolutely obnoxious, self-important snob of a tweenager, who according to herself is absolutely amazing and capable and just simply the best, yet is struggling to make ends meet and has no visible ambition in life. She's not even fun or good company.
I kept reading because for a while it seemed the friendship between the two main characters was somewhat redeeming. But then even that turned sour and it transpired that our MC clearly hates her bestie.
I only finished the thing so I could sit and seethe a little longer.

Painful, ego-upping venture this.

Powerful.

It got a bit crowded with side characters and cheating white men, but it was worth it.