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A review by sissiemilia
The Library Suicides by Fflur Dafydd
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so divided by a book. Do I like this or do I not? I guess I’ll start with the positives?
I enjoyed the plot, even as the ”identical twins” trope is truly tired it made sense in the story. Dafydds style was right up my alley: I adored the language and the dips into the characters psychology. I have to say, too, I will always love a book with short chapters. All the characters sucked, not in the way that they were badly written, but that they were awful people and I tend to gravitate towards books like that. The Wales of the story seemed incredibly interesting and I’m confused as to why the author decided to not focus on it more since it was absolutely one of the best things about the book.
And that’s where we get to the negatives. Related to the dystopian Wales, the world building is really not that great. Maybe if I were Welsh or lived in the UK instead of Finland I could understand the world better? Am I just missing some cultural context? There is clearly critisism towards the way England treats Wales and I think it’s supposed to critique something about Welsh society too? That’s the vibe I’m getting and aren’t all dystopian books critiques of the writers society? It was completely lost on me though. The destruction of books as a way to control the masses is an incredibly interesting and relevant idea too, but it felt a bit detatched? I wasn’t a big fan of the way the ending was built either, it fell a bit flat, though I think I get the message.
Also, can we talk about the role of misogony and feminism in this book? I truly do not know wether the reader is supposed to be left thinking ”feminisim is bad” or ”feminism is good”. To me atleast, there seems to be some sort of conservative dystopian image of ”what happens if we let the females run the world”. Though the fact that the dystopian government is almost completely lead by women is almost exclusively given to us by Eben makes me uncertain in my claim, because no-one in this book, let alone Eben, is a reliable narrator. Also, Ebens little critic group is clearly not supposed to be liked by the reader and a big part of that is their misogony. So which one is it? I’m left extremely confused by the book and I truly cannot tell if I liked it or not, which leads me to give it just 2 stars despite the many positive aspects.
I enjoyed the plot, even as the ”identical twins” trope is truly tired it made sense in the story. Dafydds style was right up my alley: I adored the language and the dips into the characters psychology. I have to say, too, I will always love a book with short chapters. All the characters sucked, not in the way that they were badly written, but that they were awful people and I tend to gravitate towards books like that. The Wales of the story seemed incredibly interesting and I’m confused as to why the author decided to not focus on it more since it was absolutely one of the best things about the book.
And that’s where we get to the negatives. Related to the dystopian Wales, the world building is really not that great. Maybe if I were Welsh or lived in the UK instead of Finland I could understand the world better? Am I just missing some cultural context? There is clearly critisism towards the way England treats Wales and I think it’s supposed to critique something about Welsh society too? That’s the vibe I’m getting and aren’t all dystopian books critiques of the writers society? It was completely lost on me though. The destruction of books as a way to control the masses is an incredibly interesting and relevant idea too, but it felt a bit detatched? I wasn’t a big fan of the way the ending was built either, it fell a bit flat, though I think I get the message.
Also, can we talk about the role of misogony and feminism in this book? I truly do not know wether the reader is supposed to be left thinking ”feminisim is bad” or ”feminism is good”. To me atleast, there seems to be some sort of conservative dystopian image of ”what happens if we let the females run the world”. Though the fact that the dystopian government is almost completely lead by women is almost exclusively given to us by Eben makes me uncertain in my claim, because no-one in this book, let alone Eben, is a reliable narrator. Also, Ebens little critic group is clearly not supposed to be liked by the reader and a big part of that is their misogony. So which one is it? I’m left extremely confused by the book and I truly cannot tell if I liked it or not, which leads me to give it just 2 stars despite the many positive aspects.