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samburkhouse's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Terminal illness, and Animal death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Death of parent
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
srivalli's review
reflective
slow-paced
2.75
2.7 stars
One Liner: Got its moments, though underwhelming
1885, Paris
Aubry Tourvel was a bratty nine-year-old when she started to bleed to death at the dinner table. Soon, the treatments made her worse, and she escaped to the city’s outskirts. Then she realized that the only cure for her strange disease was to keep traveling. She cannot stay at any place for more than a few days.
Thus began her neverending travel around the world from one end to another, meeting many people but never having someone to call her own. What happens to Aubry? Does her journey end?
The story comes in Aubry’s third-person POV.
My Thoughts:
The premise is quite intriguing, so when I saw the book was available, I grabbed an ARC. Though I’m a fan of rounded endings, I knew I wouldn’t get it in this one.
The beginning is terrific. We start with the crisis and move on to some details in the past, and then the story goes back and forth. The timeline is as messy as it can get with no proper indication (except for the chapter titles, which are really helpful in making some sense of the flow).
Once the initial curiosity wears off, we are left to follow the MC as she meanders through different lands, meets different people, makes friends, takes lovers, and moves on.
Some of it is actually good since there are instances when Aubry goes into introspective mode or realizes that her way of manipulating others may not be the right move. Unfortunately, the MC remains distant and somehow, has the same tone almost throughout.
However, the dialogues are stilted, even uncomfortable, and abrupt at times. It’s hard to get a hang of the MC, which means trying to empathize with her is also a tough task despite the circumstances. There are quite a few side characters- some of them are more distinct, while others blur into one another. Somehow, one character who could actually be important gets only a line at the end.
This is also the kind of book that makes it easy to zone out. One second you could be reading, the next instant, you’d be planning your to-do list or humming lyrics from a song you heard a decade ago. The middle is the slowest and feels like we are going in circles.
The puzzle ball and the secret doors, libraries, etc., are an attempt at magic realism. While I admire the inclusion of libraries, I wish the scenes were better executed.
Though I ended up with a headache after reading this, I did enjoy the ending. It was better than I hoped. I might have liked it more if the book was 50-70 pages shorter. Aubry, unfortunately, is not interesting enough to sustain for 400+ pages.
To summarize, A Short Walk Through a Wide World has a great premise and some worthy elements, but hasn’t wowed me. This is a niche book, so it may not give the same results to other readers (like me).
Thank you, NetGalley and Avid Reader (Simon & Schuster), for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #AShortWalkThroughAWideWorld
***
TW: Animal murders; quite a few scenes deal with killing animals (wild boar, strange bird, monkey, rabbit, etc.), and some are more graphic than others
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
gondorgirl's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
fictionandfarming's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical trauma, Animal death, Body horror, and Violence
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