loxeletters's reviews
239 reviews

This book was a pleasure to read, and I finished it quickly. Having previously read and loved See's Snow Flower, it was interesting to see the differences and parallels between the two books.

I adored the friendship between Yunxian and Meiling, though it didn't feel as deep or strong as in the other book. Of course, the focus of this one was quite different! Seeing the world as described by a woman brought-up in a wealthy family was certainly interesting, and I enjoyed the poetic language the protagonist used due to her upbringing. Yunxian could be frustrating as a character, seen mostly in her treatment of Meiling, but I felt she grew quite nicely. The entire topic of her medicine was fascinating. Some aspects (the concubines, especially) were infuriating to read about, yet felt realistic and true to the time. The mystery aspect surprised me pleasantly and, after I had seen one twist towards the beginning of the book coming, I was later absolutely surprised by other twists that were set up masterfully. 
The ending gave quite a generous amount of pages to tying up various plotlines, which almost felt *too* simple, but the postscript revealed new questions which left me with much to think about.

Sometimes I felt I had to put the book down to give my mind time to process all the things that were happening quite quickly - especially with the large time skips between each of the four sections. However, I feel this speaks more to the extreme readibility which made me devour the book in essentially four long sittings than detract from its quality.
While I think I would have liked to see some more development in the relationships that weren't with her family, I enjoyed this book greatly and look forward to reading more of See's work.

This books left me with extremely mixed feelings.

First off, there were a few things I liked quite a bit: the sort of "mixed media" approach of including emails and news articles was fun, the world and cultures the author had created were interesting, and the writing style was simple and binge read-able.

That being said, I had some major gripes and for the first 80% I thought it was gonna be a 2.5 star at best. Most prominently, while I enjoyed the prose itself (except for some genre-typical infodumps), the storytelling decisions made in this book baffled me.  Most of the conflicts, relationships, and arcs set up for the characters developed and resolved quickly and/or off-page, whereas I found myself annotating over and over again: "This would have been impactful if it had been properly set up" for the conflicts that actually were explored on-page. 
The time skips seriously took me out of the story multiple times, especially since there is no in-text discussion of time passing.
Since we spend so little time getting to know the characters, I was unable to connect to most of them on any deeper level, especially the (intentionally) unlikeable ones, and this eliminated any emotional impact the first 3/4s of the book should've had. It was still a fun read! But I could tell in many scenes the author was trying to make things emotional or tense, while I just did not care. Certainly not enough to read pages worth of "tragic" backstory for a character that was supposed to be unlikeable less than ten pages ago. This really irked me.

The last 20% or so did kind of throw me for a loop, in that I suddenly did really connect with one emotional event, which I didn't expect. That is what made this book 3 stars for me, in the end. I did also appreciate the final ending, which wrapped up some ties very neatly.

Tldr: while this was an enjoyable and fun read, the narrative structure was bizarre and undermined the emotional impact of many scenes. However, the final conflict and ending surprised me positively in this regard.

This book is an exploration of the mind of an elderly woman who has to come to terms with the fact that her daughter is a lesbian. It's not a happy or particularly uplifting book; in fact, the protagonist is (intentionally) frustrating and unlikeable. 
A second, big part of the story is that the narrator works as a carer at a nursing home. This way, the theme of accepting other people's differences is connected to the fear of growing old alone, and of dying lonely. Another theme is that of being a person - which is discussed very explicitly in relation to the MC's patients, and implied in the way she refuses to refer to her daughter as anything but that - her daughter. Not a person of her own.
Thirdly, the book discusses capitalism, the gruelling reality of work and alienation, and living on the line to poverty.

As is typical for Korean fiction, the book is quite understated. It does not present a neat solution. The world of this book remains relatively bleak throughout its entirety. 

While the ending may be frustrating or unfulfilling to some, I enjoyed the realism of it. The beauty of female relationships shone, even in harrowing conditions. And it serves as a fruitful critique of capitalism and contemporary society.

TW for homophobia and an extremely toxic mother-daughter relationship.

This had surprisingly nice prose, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I found myself regretting that I couldn't annotate some lines in a physical book - I might have to get a copy!

The characters were incredibly likeable and I did not see most of the plot's twists and turns coming. While I felt that the continued presence of Harper's ex was a bit contrived, he did serve as a compelling villain figure - if a bit exaggerated in some aspects.
The discussion of humanity's kindness towards the end was especially interesting to me. 

However I did feel that the last part was quite rushed, compared to the previous sections, and featured surprisingly little detail - though I understand this choice from a storytelling perspective, it felt a bit incoherent with the rest of the book.

One thing I noticed was that John apparently learnt an unspecified sign language from his Irish mother, likely BSL or ISL, which somehow resulted in him being able to sign ASL? That seems like an unfortunate oversight on part of the author.

Nevertheless, the characters, their relationships, and the intricate plot had me devouring this book within a few days, and I even shed a tear towards the end.

Reading this after having seen the movie - many times - I have more appreciation for it than I likely would've had otherwise. Many aspects I liked about the movie especially were inventions of the scriptwriters - such as the Ghost, or the relationships among the children. Nevertheless, it's a sweet story. The art is much prettier than the movie.

A very interesting look into a contemporary world falling apart: how slavery would play out in the modern day; the effects of chemical drug use, climate change, lack of information; the slow breakdown of the state. Related to this, the protagonist explores some very interesting ideas about religion and philosophy. 

There is an age gap romance in this that made me somewhat uncomfortable, and I would have liked to see some exploration of the world beyond the United States. (Even with the limited communication technology available in the setting, I would expect at least some knowledge about the rest of the world. Esp. given that they do have a TV in the beginning, plus radio.) This might be simply an accurate portrayal of American news coverage, though it  speaks nevertheless to the general issue of US American self-centredness. Hopefully the sequel will give some insights here. 

Unglaublich fragwürdige Darstellung von dissoziativer Persönlichkeitsstörung. Zu viele Charaktere. Alles sehr unübersichtlich. Vieles unrealistisch.

Sehr mittelmäßig. 

Den Erzähler fand ich schrecklich, den Plot nicht sonderlich spannend. 

Die unglaublich geringe Aufmerksamkeit, die die verschwundene Tochter in dem Buch erhält, ist mir unerklärlich. Grundsätzlich schien mir die Aufmerksamkeit ("Screen time") in diesem Buch sehr komisch verteilt. Interessante Aspekte, wie Verhöre, wurden oft mit knappen Sätzen zusammengefasst, wohingegen den Grübeleien über den Stand des Falls gefühlt zig Absätze gewidmet wurden. 
Dazu kommt dass mich persönlich die Privatleben der Kommissare in Krimis kaum interessieren, das ist aber Geschmackssache...

Außerdem schließe ich mich den anderen Rezensenten an: es waren einfach zu viele (verdächtige) Charaktere, gerade in Audioform einfach viel zu unübersichtlich. 

Kirchhoff bleibt durch das Buch hindurch flach, nur eine Folie für Bodenstein. Der wiederum ist mir unsympathisch, mit misogyn anmutenden Beschreibungen der Frauen un ihn herum und ohne Schuldgefühlen für seine Ehebruch-Sehnsüchte. Übrigens war zumindest beim Audiobuch häufig nicht ganz schlüssig, aus welcher Perspektive gerade erzählt wird, zumindest wenn Bodenstein und Kirchhoff beide in der Szene anwesend sind.

Und, wie jemand bereits festgestellt hat:

die Aussage, dass die Tochter am Ende scheinbar kein Trauma hat, ist ja mal unglaublich. Deren Mutter ist gestorben, sie wurde entführt, sediert, und in ein anderes Land gebracht, und dann ist am Ende alles gut? Ja, klar... Aber kein Wunder, nachdem das Buch ihr ja ungefähr eine Minute an Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt hat.

Wie auch der vorherige Band der Reihe, ist dieser Band weit vom Bereich des Realistischen entfernt. Trotzdem ein unterhaltsamer, spannender Thriller. Die Freundschaften zwischen dem Haupt-Team finde ich immer noch nicht sehr überzeugend, zumindest nicht zu dem Grad, zu dem sie aufgespielt werden. Das scheint mir doch etwas überstürzt, nachdem die ersten vier Bände dieses 'Trope' ja so gar nicht beinhalteten. Alles in allem aber spannend, und die letzten Kapitel haben mich wirklich umgehauen...

Mit diesem Eintrag verabschiedet sich die Sneijder-Reuhe endgültig vom Realistischen. Auch geht es - wie bereits in Band 3 - nicht mehr wirklich um die Psyche eines Serienmörders, sondern um einen systemischen Komplott. Trotzdem spannend!