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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
dark
funny
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
Not gonna lie, I'm not sure whether this is a good book or if I just really want to like it. The premise is so interesting. Getting into it takes time. I was eager to read and at the end I was happy with the journey. This book leaves you feeling nostalgic and I'm sure for what.
Just a book about a guy who is dead (but who hasn't crossed over yet due to a bureaucratic mix up) who notices a girl who notices him and they have frequent sex. It's also not even well-written sex. It's more like "They had sex, and it was AMAZING!" Unfortunately, there is also a part where she hops on him when he is unconscious, and many parts where he enters her without her knowing until it happens. This basically reads to me like rape. Oh, but they are also completely in love for no real reason. It really doesn't even say why, just that they are. The girl then finds someone to fuck who isn't dead (so much for love) and basically gets stalked by the ghost before having paranormal acupuncture therapy to release him. Uh, ok. Was hoping for something more philosophical and thought provoking about both love and death. Honestly the world building about how death is a bureaucracy was way more interesting than the rest of the book, but once they start having sex, it's like the bureaucracy story-telling completely disappears. In the beginning, the "regrets" are something the bureaucracy warns the dead guy about incurring if he breaks rules like engaging with living people. But once that story-telling is done, it never explains exactly what that means for him. All in all, characters are bland and the story leads nowhere. Regret reading.
I loved Bonnaffon’s sense of Thomas and Rachel. I enjoyed Rachel’s idea of the daydream, an imagined wholeness external to her:
I have fallen in love with my own daydreams and then they have gone out into the world and returned to me embodied as men. When I eventually fell out of love with these men, it was [because]… these men could not withstand the daydream’s reality. They were not strong enough. The daydream slid off them…
I liked both of their philosophizing, fascinated musings about relationship and love. Much of the strength of this novel is the machinations of relationships, the thoughts and tender areas of them:
Each lover brings a different third into room and each third, in turn, might be trying to escape the pull of some nagging presence or absence. Every individual love story takes place within a larger fabric of desire, stretching out infinitely, pulled from every possible direction.
I enjoyed Thomas’ emotional distance from reality, how he talks about his frustrated darkness:
the whole point had always been disappearance
I reached a little over the halfway point in this book and it washed over me, overwhelming and illuminating both. I was afraid to continue, but Bonnaffons has created this story with care, and there is healing in its cycle.
The last paragraph of this book was comfort and trust and deep self-love.
There are a few Mark and Thomas section that slow the momentum, with information from Mark’s perspective that seemed designed to represent a typical, dully harmless man, and did that well. I wasn’t sure why these parts were needed.
There’s also a lot of sex in this book, propelling relationships and situations as though it were, itself, a character and a haunting. Though there were hurts and states of being that resisted a novel’s dialogue, I would’ve liked more nonsexual intimacy. Hugs, touches, the feeling of togetherness were strong moments for me.
Rachel and Thomas’s New York is weird. It’s diluted in some ways, its cliches spin out into deeply sad spaces, it’s industrial and hipster qualities rise up as strange, grimy, angular art pieces that overtake the city. I felt New York was real as I don’t often, when I read. Zoe, Mark, Theresa and Samira all seemed to move with the colour and current of the place. Thomas and Rachel were weird, but in ordinary (and complimentary, as they say) ways. They are rich in their neuroses, they feel human and whole in them. I could empathize and, if not understand them, understand that they were true to the hard, bright cores of themselves. I was especially taken with Rachel’s willingness to go all in and see what was in store:
I’m not entirely sure I have [a heart], not in the same way as other people. That hard little fist in my chest, it won’t ever completely unclench. So what if I tempt fate?
The danger of another person, of a relationship and of obsession, can often feel like a haunting, a supernatural texture and shape. It comes alive in these words.
It’s hard to describe why I liked this book, I think. But I did like it. I’m glad for it.
I have fallen in love with my own daydreams and then they have gone out into the world and returned to me embodied as men. When I eventually fell out of love with these men, it was [because]… these men could not withstand the daydream’s reality. They were not strong enough. The daydream slid off them…
I liked both of their philosophizing, fascinated musings about relationship and love. Much of the strength of this novel is the machinations of relationships, the thoughts and tender areas of them:
Each lover brings a different third into room and each third, in turn, might be trying to escape the pull of some nagging presence or absence. Every individual love story takes place within a larger fabric of desire, stretching out infinitely, pulled from every possible direction.
I enjoyed Thomas’ emotional distance from reality, how he talks about his frustrated darkness:
the whole point had always been disappearance
I reached a little over the halfway point in this book and it washed over me, overwhelming and illuminating both. I was afraid to continue, but Bonnaffons has created this story with care, and there is healing in its cycle.
The last paragraph of this book was comfort and trust and deep self-love.
There are a few Mark and Thomas section that slow the momentum, with information from Mark’s perspective that seemed designed to represent a typical, dully harmless man, and did that well. I wasn’t sure why these parts were needed.
There’s also a lot of sex in this book, propelling relationships and situations as though it were, itself, a character and a haunting. Though there were hurts and states of being that resisted a novel’s dialogue, I would’ve liked more nonsexual intimacy. Hugs, touches, the feeling of togetherness were strong moments for me.
Rachel and Thomas’s New York is weird. It’s diluted in some ways, its cliches spin out into deeply sad spaces, it’s industrial and hipster qualities rise up as strange, grimy, angular art pieces that overtake the city. I felt New York was real as I don’t often, when I read. Zoe, Mark, Theresa and Samira all seemed to move with the colour and current of the place. Thomas and Rachel were weird, but in ordinary (and complimentary, as they say) ways. They are rich in their neuroses, they feel human and whole in them. I could empathize and, if not understand them, understand that they were true to the hard, bright cores of themselves. I was especially taken with Rachel’s willingness to go all in and see what was in store:
I’m not entirely sure I have [a heart], not in the same way as other people. That hard little fist in my chest, it won’t ever completely unclench. So what if I tempt fate?
The danger of another person, of a relationship and of obsession, can often feel like a haunting, a supernatural texture and shape. It comes alive in these words.
It’s hard to describe why I liked this book, I think. But I did like it. I’m glad for it.
The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons | @littlebrown #partner | Final Thoughts
.
stayed up a little bit later last night to finish The Regrets! this book brought be unique relief after some lengthier, heavy reads. the story is bizarre, yet engaging, and leaves you intrigued with each passing page.
.
a few cautions, as i didn’t really think about it before starting, but this book uses sex and sexuality as a primary way of communicating/connecting through this unique relationship. if that’s not something you’re looking for, this may not be the one for you. additionally, i would not recommend this if you’re grieving in some way, as this book consistently addresses death, despite it being in a silly or absurd way— i found that it actually gets pretty real, at times.
.
if those aspects aren’t upsetting to you, then i think you’ll find The Regrets to be a fun, interesting read to bridge the gap between weighty reads. it’s a good story that doesn’t require a huge amount of emotional investment, and for that i’m grateful. read this if you enjoy a unique change to a romance narrative and a new perspective on love, death, sexuality, and ways we connect. The Regrets comes out on 2/4!
.
stayed up a little bit later last night to finish The Regrets! this book brought be unique relief after some lengthier, heavy reads. the story is bizarre, yet engaging, and leaves you intrigued with each passing page.
.
a few cautions, as i didn’t really think about it before starting, but this book uses sex and sexuality as a primary way of communicating/connecting through this unique relationship. if that’s not something you’re looking for, this may not be the one for you. additionally, i would not recommend this if you’re grieving in some way, as this book consistently addresses death, despite it being in a silly or absurd way— i found that it actually gets pretty real, at times.
.
if those aspects aren’t upsetting to you, then i think you’ll find The Regrets to be a fun, interesting read to bridge the gap between weighty reads. it’s a good story that doesn’t require a huge amount of emotional investment, and for that i’m grateful. read this if you enjoy a unique change to a romance narrative and a new perspective on love, death, sexuality, and ways we connect. The Regrets comes out on 2/4!
reflective
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:
N/A
