bookmaddie's reviews
1104 reviews

Funny and cute audiobook with lots of intrigue. Great audiobook. 

The same phrase was repeated 3 times, and it really gave ‘written for white people (with no critical thinking skills).’

Also, the characters felt really flat on the page. Somewhat stereotypical.. 

Other reviews are quite positive and it seems to pick up the pace. I just couldn’t get past my initial annoyance.

Beautifully told with somewhat spare, yet poetic prose.
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What a book! And the beginning of my whale historical fiction reading (currently reading WILD AND DISTANT SEAS, maybe I’ll do WHALEBONE THEATRE next??).

This is a contemplative, poetic novel about a young woman in an isolated island community learning about how she wants to live. Does she leave the world she’s known her entire life for the promise of something new, or stay in a place that feels familiar and safe? With spare yet absolutely stunning language, O’Connor wonders at the strength it takes to make a new future, and about the traditions and stories you might leave behind.

Two scholars come to the island trying to capture the traditions of the community, adding a necessary tension to the story. Their introduction into the community brought the question of exploitation and glamorizing a story and people for their own benefit to the forefront of my mind.

This is just a stunning, masterfully written and composed story. O’Connor’s writing feels honest, yet magical, with every word falling where it should. This is the sort of character-driven novel I adore, and I only hope that O’Connor has more for us in the coming years.

fav poems:
loneliness

the wasp

on not mowing the lawn

the country of the trees

so fun and magical!

GORGEOUS!! BANGER!!! Maybe I should finally try to get into poetry…

A quick read that loses steam once a death occurs, making the lack of characterization obvious. 

I found the artistic/tarot card mystery more compelling than the who-dunnit mystery that takes up most of the latter half of the book.  The art history aspects shined in this story, and as we got away from that, the writing felt rote and unsurprising.

My main gripe is with characterization. The main character, Ann, is drawn with barely any personality, only developing some sense of agency (and cynicism) at the very very end. This comes as a shock, as almost no time is spent in any serious way developing Ann’s personality or showing how she changes because of her whirlwind summer. It all felt very surface-level and unsatisfying. The writing about NYC felt so naive, too.

Admittedly, I skimmed the last third of the novel, just wanting it to be done by that point.

More of a 2.5 star, really. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced digital copy. Sorry it took me so long to get to it!