Reviews

Depths by Henning Mankell

cricca's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

kanderson246's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War and Murder

noirish's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

A deeply introspective novel, Depths exists on the border between the real and the surreal. The main character is a deeply unlikeable individual, and yet Mankell does a skillful job of making him sympathetic despite his many reprehensible actions. This is ultimately a story about the deep sense of isolation people feel, even in the presence of those closest to them. It is a tragedy that any person can experience even in a comfortably mundane existence: an existence which is always caught in the space between fear and hope; between the weights of the past that drag us down and the deceptive possibilities of the future. 

francescaar's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

hannah_ks's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

librosdelanoche's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

tricky's review against another edition

1.0

I just could not get into this book, I really struggled. I could not engage with the characters and I just found it a trial to read.
The writing style was great, the use of words was wonderful, but it was just not for me.
Don't know why, maybe just the wrong time to read this one.

frickative's review against another edition

4.0

In an effort to introduce some variety into my reading material (Stephen King and crime fiction are fine - reading nothing but Stephen King and crime fiction is not so fine) I recently joined a book group through my local library. Depths is the first book I read for it, and for the first 50 pages or so, I was almost regretting joining. Almost. It's a weird book, that's for sure. It's stark, it's bleak, it's excessively detailed, and in places it's so minimalist that entire chapters are a single sentence long.

While the prologue is fantastically gripping, what follows it really wasn't, for me, until I settled into the style. The main character is obsessed with measurements, so there's a lot of intricate detail, plus an underlying tone of total despair. Yet by the final third of the book, I stopped having to force myself to read a set number of pages per day, and began racing through it of my own volition. It's a tough one to explain - the protagonist is a reprehensible excuse for a human being, there's no one and nothing to root for here, and yet it became highly compelling nonetheless.

It didn't help that around the mid-way point, I read a bizarre Guardian review that said the main character is a serial killer. He isn't. I spent the rest of the book waiting for this to be revealed. It wasn't.

All in all, I'd definitely be interested in checking out more of Mankell's work (I really must try some Wallander, resolution to read less crime fiction be damned) because there was some really beautiful prose here.

robintz's review against another edition

2.0

Way too creepy for me. The narrator starts out as unlikable and eventually becomes evil personified. Almost stopped reading multiple times but forced myself to finish.

scherzo's review against another edition

2.0

Kristian Tacker escapes from a Swedish asylum in Chapter 1; she is confused about her husband; then is found by the warders late the same night in Chapter 2. I wanted to know why she was in an asylum.

So I stick with Kritian's psychopathic/sociopathic/?? husband for hundreds of pages (very short chapters, thankfully) while he lies, hits, deceives, attacks, deludes, kills, manipulates, despises, etc. everyone he encounters.

Some elements of the movie Gaslight, but nowhere near as mesmerizing.