unabridgedchick's reviews
1398 reviews

I love stories about nuns and forgotten women of history, so a Lauren Groff novel about Marie de France seemed a no brainer. And it was great -- totally captivating -- but such an extended fancy I'm baffled why Groff picked Marie de France to be the figure at the heart of the story.

As a novel about medieval, 12th century monastic life for women, it's brilliant. Groff's narrative style -- a kind of wooden, present-tense, third person that ends up suiting the story, with the rigidity and distance from us in time -- paints vibrantly what life at this once blessed-or-bewitched convent would be like. How a smart, ambitious woman might make lemonade out of lemons. But to imagine it would be how the historical Marie de France -- a figure so unknown to us that scholars can't agree who it might be -- ended up living her life felt a bit like a bait and switch. Marie de France's poetry figures in quite early in the story, and then disappears completely; the rich story that unfolds could genuinely have figured for anyone especially since it articulates the history of a royal abbey we never learn the name of, an abbey that grows to mythic grandeur that it too can't be truly historical. 

Still, I liked this book, especially when I stopped trying to search for a poet and lyricist in the pages. I adore novels of nuns and convents, of mystics and abbesses, and this joined the list of those books. An easy read, mostly, with passages tangled and rich with images. 

I was grumpy this morning so picked this up -- and ended up inhaling it in a few hours. I'm horrifascinated by Lizzie Borden, despite my typical aversion to true crime, and I love retellings and imaginings of how things might have unfolded.

This one, a contemporary thriller set in Falls River, MA, echoes the Borden murders late in the story; the majority of the story details the fallout of a tragedy and its impact on a family. A family that has to deal with dishonesty that stretches further than anyone wants to admit. In that, it's a solid story of grief and denial and being a teenager under extraordinary emotional circumstances; even without the Borden homage, I was stressed about how things would shake out.

Oh, the end. I had some ideas about how it would go but I was still shook by some of what happened -- for whatever reason, I was most betrayed by

Stephen, even though he featured so little in the story.

The cruelty of it, I think.

Read this when it's cold and gray outside so the world matches the mood. 

The main tension of the novel -- an accusation that the main character 'stole' a plot -- is so low-stakes it's hard to get into the thriller-y mood needed to appreciate the rest of the drama. So it's not until about 80% in that the novel genuinely becomes stressful, and that's mostly from waiting to see if the 'twist' is what is being telegraphed. A fun, 48-hour read.

Late to the Murderbot lovefest but now that I'm here, I'm all gushing admiration. A wildly fun listen although I wished it had been a full cast production, or at least featured an audiobook reader who was a little more gender ambiguous. Took me a long time to listen only b/c I'm not good at making audiobook time.