Amatka

A very engaging piece of speculative fiction about a world where every object holds it's shape thanks to the correct (and regular!) marking of what it is. A pencil has to be marked as a pencil, otherwise it'll turn into goo.

I loved the atmosphere of the book. The world our protagonist lives in is bleak and grey with a slight Soviet vibe, but underneath it all hides a mystery that the book slowly unwraps, as we get to explore the history and society of this strange new world.

Somewhere towards the middle it suddenly gets some Jeff VanderMeer vibes, which I feel ambivalent about. I love Jeff VanderMeer's work, yet I feel like Karin Tidbeck can't use these devices (for instance - the dream-like feel of the surroundings) as effectively.

I also find the ending rather unsatisfying. Again, it tries to be VanderMeerian (by leaving a lot for the reader to infer), but it doesn't work that well because figuring it out becomes the main hook of the story (at least for me).

Overall, this is a book definitely worth reading and I think I'd like to re-read it at some point in the future.

There were some repeated phrases that I feel shouldn't be repeated. I've put them under SPOILER in case you don't care about stuff like that.

1. "There was a sour taste... (2 times)... at the back of Vanja's throat."... on her [Vanja's] tongue."Both refer to unpleasant situations and are essentially the same expression. 2. "roof of her mouth" (4 times)- three of these refer to food being stuck to the roof of Vanja's mouth. 3. "though her nose" (2 times)- once Nina exhaled through her nose, and the other time she inhaled. Maybe the repetition signifies something (since it happens only twice, to the same character, and the opposite way), but I still found the repetition a bit distracting.