Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Lanny by Max Porter

5 reviews

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 I'll exalt the literary merits of Max Porter and Ling Ma: both are fairly young authors with a small list of works, but I'll easily buy everything they put out if it's anywhere near the quality of what I've read so far. 

Porter a British bookstore-owner who writes short novels and novellas (Lanny is his longest) with highly idiosyncratic writing. Have you heard the term "prose-poetry"? Porter writes "prose-poetry-stage directions". Passages are announced with the name of characters in bold, and you read their thoughts or conversations with others rather than "normal" dialogue or descriptions. No surprises his debut Grief Is the Thing with Feathers was indeed adapted for stage, starring Cillian Murphy. 

Lanny follows a family who recently moved to a small town outside of London. Their capricious son has a gift for art, cavorts around the town, and has the fine-edged chaos that so many single-digit ages have before they "grow up" or something. The town also embodies the presence of Old Papa Toothwort, a Green Man-esque figure who... inhabits? haunts? is? the town as a sort of genius loci. Toothwort is waking up after a long rest, and the town has changed since last time. 

It’s not a spoiler to say that Lanny goes missing. Porter is incredible at describing the creeping fear of searching for a missing child and the irreparable harm it does to a family and community. At one point, POVs switch with every little break as the slow dread sinks in, with characters no longer being introduced but nonetheless distinct, just providing occasional snippets of thoughts or conversation as it turns from "Lanny isn’t home yet in the afternoon" to "have you seen Lanny?" to "I always knew that woman was a bad mum". It is tense. 

Spoiler for parents interested in the book but don't want to go in wondering about the missing child plotline:

Lanny survives, and the ending is actually kind of sweet in the implied relationship between Lanny, nature, and creativity even after the trauma of his disappearance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Hate crime, and Confinement

Minor: Death, Classism, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

erishti's review

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense

5.0

Painfully beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Sexual content, Cursing, and Animal death

Moderate: Gore, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

Minor: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide, Trafficking, Rape, Alcohol, Excrement, and Murder

orlagal's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Animal death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Cursing

lethargarianreads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Pedophilia, Body horror, and Sexual content

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Haven't decided on a rating yet; just finished this book in one sitting. Absolutely loved it, shocking and painful and heartwarming too. Not sure about the ending. Will think about this for a very long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Sexual content