Psalms For The End Of The World

DNF after 250 pages. Would-be philosophical sub-Matrix guff and an unhealthy obsession with sexual violence.

I really tried with this one. I could tell the overarching story was fascinating and I wanted to learn more, but Haddon wields violence as a very blunt instrument. It didn't feel measured, used in service to the plot, but rather stuffed in at every opportunity.

And never have I ever come across an author with SUCH an anal fixation. By the third or fourth character subjected to anal r*pe it just got both weird (is it his greatest fear? A long-standing fixation? WHY IS THERE SO MUCH OF IT?) and also stale? Very one-note in a way that cancelled out any of the intrigue I felt about the world building.

I DNF'd about a third of the way through.