Kelly

But I slipped away, and am still slipping away, within these lines that are intended to give me a story, while in fact I am nothing, nothing of my own, nothing that has really begun or really been brought to completion: only a tangled knot, and nobody, not even the one who at this moment is writing, knows if it contains the right thread for a story or is merely a snarled confusion of suffering, without redemption.

I did not necessarily like this book but I respected it a lot. (I have a hard time with any book that is rugged or western in general – maybe because I am an liberal East Coast elite? – so my lack of emotional connection is perhaps not surprising. I do have an affinity for well-drawn and deeply unlikable characters, though, which this book delivered in spades.) Whatever your literary preferences, this is undeniably a very well-crafted and masterfully written book. I'm glad I read it even though my own shortcomings in taste made it less enjoyable than it could've been.

Flashes of The Secret History: this book is populated by improbably erudite children who drink ludicrously — also, murder! It doesn't rise to the spellbinding beauty of Tartt's, but it's fun and funny and worth a read.

The stakes of this book are so off! There is so little world building and there is a shallowness to the two characters' romance that can't be overcome by the flowery writing. I really wanted them to focus on the cool time travel history stuff, and why the two warring sides are actually different (as opposed to indistinct warring factions whose battles always just cancel each other out).

Truly pushing the bounds of unlikeable characters. The last page is stunning.