Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Lanny

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Lanny by Max Porter

18 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.

Content Warnings

erishti's review

Go to review page

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense

5.0

Painfully beautiful.

Content Warnings

orlagal's review

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

zarap's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

What a bright and heartbreaking and well-crafted book. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts in daylight but I don't always remember to come back to write a review. Just. Chef's kiss. I'm a bit sorry I waited so long to read it but I also think it was the perfect time.

Content Warnings

joseph_nevnev's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

spookybookylonnie's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the first book in a while I've had to stop at the end, sit in silence and really digest.

I am in love with the way Max Porter wrote this. The words literally jumped around the page to reflect Dead Papa Toothwort's inner thoughts and listenings. You may know him as The Green Man.

This book was disgusting, bizarre, wonderful, magical, insane and I loved every second. It centres around a young boy called Lanny who is fantastic and weird, his life full of the whimsy he invents through art, nature and curiosity.

I won't say much more, it's a hard one to explain without giving too much away, but I absolutely loved it.

Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

Lanny is a beautiful book that's equal parts dark folktale and character study. Lanny and the adults in his life all figure heavily in this novel. Lanny's mother and his art mentor, Pete, nurture and encourage Lanny's unique creativity. Lanny's father loves him but doesn't know how to nurture his son. Dead Papa Toothwort, a mythological character that is the mischievous soul of the village, recognizes Lanny's quiet brilliance. The village, as heard by Toothwort, is also a character in itself vis a vis overheard snippets of gossip. These snippets are interwoven throughout the novel until it becomes clear that they represent the ways that outsiders can taint beauty with their presumptions.

Overall, this book is difficult to describe beyond just a list of words/vibes so that's how I'll leave it.

Lanny is
enchanting
empathetic
heartbreaking
triumphant
& artful.

Content Warnings