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kierstyn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I don't usually like magical realism, but the premise of this book sounded really intriguing, I just didn't like the way it was presented. we follow the main character from the age of 9 into her senile years as she wanders the globe at the mercy of her disease that won't let her stop travelling because the disease wants to see the world. the disease also has conversations with her which is weird. I guess even though this book is magical realism I was still looking for a more realistic approach than magical so I didn't really like the magical aspects.
I think we could have really dove deep into a few of her travel scenarios and really got to know a select handful of places, what they were like, what she experienced and learned there, who she met etc., but instead we are given hundredssss of places she has travelled and each one is not explained in detail, just gone over very shallowly. this doesn't leave me with a way to connect to the character or the culture/landscape because she moves on so easily from everyone/everything. even if she says she is sad, that is told to us and not shown to us. it would have been more impactful if we spent more time in some places and really got to KNOW the people she meets, and therefore the character herself. instead, she likes to travel to places, meet men, fall in love with them in 2 days and then has to leave. this happens like 3 times in the book.
going off of this, the book reads as very tell and not show. for example "the character did this and she did this and she felt this," which leaves me with no way to connect to her because she feels like a character and not an actual person. I found that all of the characters were one dimensional and flat which led me to not being able to connect with/care for anyone. the dialogue is also very stilted and does not flow naturally.
another thing, this book is set in 1885 to the mid 1900s, yet it could have taken place in really any time period because there are, again, not a lot of descriptions that set the scene around the character, escape the fact that we know she travels by foot and boat and not by plane. there are tons of descriptions about blood and animal death. the chapters also jump all over the place and I was continually losing track of the order of events, how old the character was when certain things were happening etc.
also this book is nothing like life of pi, I really don't understand that reference?
so did I enjoy reading the book? kind of. I was expecting something different from what I read which has affected my rating.
I think we could have really dove deep into a few of her travel scenarios and really got to know a select handful of places, what they were like, what she experienced and learned there, who she met etc., but instead we are given hundredssss of places she has travelled and each one is not explained in detail, just gone over very shallowly. this doesn't leave me with a way to connect to the character or the culture/landscape because she moves on so easily from everyone/everything. even if she says she is sad, that is told to us and not shown to us. it would have been more impactful if we spent more time in some places and really got to KNOW the people she meets, and therefore the character herself. instead, she likes to travel to places, meet men, fall in love with them in 2 days and then has to leave. this happens like 3 times in the book.
going off of this, the book reads as very tell and not show. for example "the character did this and she did this and she felt this," which leaves me with no way to connect to her because she feels like a character and not an actual person. I found that all of the characters were one dimensional and flat which led me to not being able to connect with/care for anyone. the dialogue is also very stilted and does not flow naturally.
another thing, this book is set in 1885 to the mid 1900s, yet it could have taken place in really any time period because there are, again, not a lot of descriptions that set the scene around the character, escape the fact that we know she travels by foot and boat and not by plane. there are tons of descriptions about blood and animal death. the chapters also jump all over the place and I was continually losing track of the order of events, how old the character was when certain things were happening etc.
also this book is nothing like life of pi, I really don't understand that reference?
so did I enjoy reading the book? kind of. I was expecting something different from what I read which has affected my rating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
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