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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not worth it. I expected a funny existential rom com with a ghost, in the vein of The Good Place or something. Instead I got two hundred pages of ghost porn. The most interesting part of the story, the angel bureaucracy, vanished because I guess we were too busy learning about the myriad ways ghosts could have sex. The characters were unpleasant (and frankly I was uncomfortable with how nonwhite and nonstraight characters were portrayed, one lesbian only present for the sake of a male character kissing her), and it felt like nothing ever amount to anything, and not in a contemplative way. Only rated this high because the prose, honestly was lovely - there were individual lines I adored, in between diatribes about mattresses and glowing penises.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death
The best way to travel during quarantine is through a book.
Or at least that’s what I’ve realized in the last five months.
Five months — has it really been that long since the pandemic shook this country to its very core and shut down life as we know it?
What once was ceased to exist. I traded in late night drinks and dancing at a neon bright bar for a cozy corner in my room with tea in one hand and my latest read in the other.
After a while, I noticed that I would read books that were out of this world.
Stories that would never, could never happen here, jumped off the page and into my imagination.
I found myself retreating to these parallel universes where people could hug and hang out without worrying about contracting coronavirus.
Their biggest worries were whether their vampire boyfriend wanted to kiss or kill them.
The latest book I’m reading had me on the edge of my seat.
Right now, I’m transported to modern-day New York City.
“The Regrets,” by Amy Bonnaffons follows Thomas as he navigates through New York in a purgatorous state.
Thomas has died and then awakens after a sort of bureaucratic error. He is sent back to Earth for 90 days while “The Office” sorts through the paperwork that was his life.
While back on Earth, he meets Rachel. Her red lips and the fact that they live in The Big Apple signify that she is sort of a forbidden fruit. And although The Office strongly discourage relationships, he can’t seem to stay away from her.
The switch of perspectives of Thomas and Rachel was like night and day, and in fact separate stories, which helped to heighten the sort of anxious incorporeality of the novel.
I’m not sure what brought me to this book, but I’m glad I got to it.
When I flipped through the pages of the book, I wasn’t lounging on my bed or sitting at my office desk during lunch, I was in New York. I was walking down the street with Thomas or listening to Rachel’s existential crisis.
The prose was strung together like an intricately woven hand basket.
It was strange, but strange can be good. At least when you’re trying to escape the strangeness that is the pandemic.
It was a book about mid-20 something’s that are just trying to find their way in a confusing world. In this particular instance... very confusing.
It’s about social isolation and connectivity and choices one makes and, of course, regrets. A story about life, love and letting go.
Right now, I’m having a hard time accepting the reality we’re stuck in.
So, if you’re like me, try cracking open the spine of a new book, perhaps even “The Regrets.”
What have you got to lose?
Or at least that’s what I’ve realized in the last five months.
Five months — has it really been that long since the pandemic shook this country to its very core and shut down life as we know it?
What once was ceased to exist. I traded in late night drinks and dancing at a neon bright bar for a cozy corner in my room with tea in one hand and my latest read in the other.
After a while, I noticed that I would read books that were out of this world.
Stories that would never, could never happen here, jumped off the page and into my imagination.
I found myself retreating to these parallel universes where people could hug and hang out without worrying about contracting coronavirus.
Their biggest worries were whether their vampire boyfriend wanted to kiss or kill them.
The latest book I’m reading had me on the edge of my seat.
Right now, I’m transported to modern-day New York City.
“The Regrets,” by Amy Bonnaffons follows Thomas as he navigates through New York in a purgatorous state.
Thomas has died and then awakens after a sort of bureaucratic error. He is sent back to Earth for 90 days while “The Office” sorts through the paperwork that was his life.
While back on Earth, he meets Rachel. Her red lips and the fact that they live in The Big Apple signify that she is sort of a forbidden fruit. And although The Office strongly discourage relationships, he can’t seem to stay away from her.
The switch of perspectives of Thomas and Rachel was like night and day, and in fact separate stories, which helped to heighten the sort of anxious incorporeality of the novel.
I’m not sure what brought me to this book, but I’m glad I got to it.
When I flipped through the pages of the book, I wasn’t lounging on my bed or sitting at my office desk during lunch, I was in New York. I was walking down the street with Thomas or listening to Rachel’s existential crisis.
The prose was strung together like an intricately woven hand basket.
It was strange, but strange can be good. At least when you’re trying to escape the strangeness that is the pandemic.
It was a book about mid-20 something’s that are just trying to find their way in a confusing world. In this particular instance... very confusing.
It’s about social isolation and connectivity and choices one makes and, of course, regrets. A story about life, love and letting go.
Right now, I’m having a hard time accepting the reality we’re stuck in.
So, if you’re like me, try cracking open the spine of a new book, perhaps even “The Regrets.”
What have you got to lose?
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Wanted this book to be good. It had a super strong premise. Ultimately, pretty disappointing.
Beautiful, sexy, dreamy, darkly comic splendor of a novel! I really enjoyed this imagining of what death could look like and how hard it might be to let go. I appreciated the liminal nature of this strikingly composed tale. Almost fairy tale like or magical realist, but at the same time all too real and heartfelt in its melancholy. I also really enjoyed her particularly dreamy way with words. I really loved it! A sweet and spooky read.
Halfway through, I almost put this book down. It wasn't what I expected, and I was finding myself a little frustrated with the characters and the changing narration. It felt like some of the most important parts happened offstage, so to speak. Still, it was an OK read.
challenging
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It was pretty bad but let me explain. (Mild spoilers ahead).
Listen. Listen. I haven’t been this disappointed in a book in a long time—the book started strong. But the structure ruined its potential. It’s infuriating that that at this level, editors failed her so badly: deleting the first part (although it was my favorite), could have saved this book from its creative flaws…though probably not the racist positioning of the characters, but even that is so cliche I’m not going to bother saying any more about that.
We start with a strong, if unlikeable character. (Thomas) He’s in a mysterious metaphysical afterlife with vague, painful regrets about the death of his female friend. She takes us on a disturbing, compelling tour of his inner world, and the challenge of surviving his “half-life” until the Office (a bureaucratic metaphor for the afterlife) sorts out his situation and absorbs him, so to speak.
Then we switch to an even less likable character’s perspective—Rachel. She is self-absorbed, a terrible friend, spoiled, brimming with racial condescension, uninteresting in every possible way with no explanation for her self-sabotaging behavior. Had we opened the book with her encounter with Thomas (the initial male lead), I could have tracked her journey and appreciated the end. But no! And understanding Thomas’s history with manipulating women takes all the air and tension out of the ensuing affair.
Still, I held on, eager to see the metaphysical consequences and go back to the dark, seductive cave of Thomas’s narrative voice. BUT NO!
She instead introduces a WHOLE NEW PERSPECTIVE CHARACTER in the last third of the book—and—surprise, surprise—he sucks, too. He only serves to make a banal insight about how he neglects the humanity of the roommate he’s fucking, and serves as a rebound for Rachel for a few pages.
Our opening character is completely abandoned and we don’t even see his resolution, even though he is the most interesting. So many cardinal sins here. Clearly an author used to the short form. Some of the humor starts to make up for this, but not really. Promises were made and not kept.
As short as this book is, it collapsed under it’s own weight. Tried to make too many messages with too many characters. This could have been incredible.
Since my disappointment is proportional to how much I loved the opening, I want to give this book credit for completely seducing me in the beginning. So three stars it will have. I hope the author hears feedback, gets a better editor, picks up another Thomas and fixes this hot mess.
Listen. Listen. I haven’t been this disappointed in a book in a long time—the book started strong. But the structure ruined its potential. It’s infuriating that that at this level, editors failed her so badly: deleting the first part (although it was my favorite), could have saved this book from its creative flaws…though probably not the racist positioning of the characters, but even that is so cliche I’m not going to bother saying any more about that.
We start with a strong, if unlikeable character. (Thomas) He’s in a mysterious metaphysical afterlife with vague, painful regrets about the death of his female friend. She takes us on a disturbing, compelling tour of his inner world, and the challenge of surviving his “half-life” until the Office (a bureaucratic metaphor for the afterlife) sorts out his situation and absorbs him, so to speak.
Then we switch to an even less likable character’s perspective—Rachel. She is self-absorbed, a terrible friend, spoiled, brimming with racial condescension, uninteresting in every possible way with no explanation for her self-sabotaging behavior. Had we opened the book with her encounter with Thomas (the initial male lead), I could have tracked her journey and appreciated the end. But no! And understanding Thomas’s history with manipulating women takes all the air and tension out of the ensuing affair.
Still, I held on, eager to see the metaphysical consequences and go back to the dark, seductive cave of Thomas’s narrative voice. BUT NO!
She instead introduces a WHOLE NEW PERSPECTIVE CHARACTER in the last third of the book—and—surprise, surprise—he sucks, too. He only serves to make a banal insight about how he neglects the humanity of the roommate he’s fucking, and serves as a rebound for Rachel for a few pages.
Our opening character is completely abandoned and we don’t even see his resolution, even though he is the most interesting. So many cardinal sins here. Clearly an author used to the short form. Some of the humor starts to make up for this, but not really. Promises were made and not kept.
As short as this book is, it collapsed under it’s own weight. Tried to make too many messages with too many characters. This could have been incredible.
Since my disappointment is proportional to how much I loved the opening, I want to give this book credit for completely seducing me in the beginning. So three stars it will have. I hope the author hears feedback, gets a better editor, picks up another Thomas and fixes this hot mess.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really loved the idea of this book but I feel as the book went on, the “regrets” stopped being as important to the characters and that made me wonder why they were used in the first place. Still glad I finished this piece
dark
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
"Just try to pretend it was ever possible to hold yourself together - that death wasn't always licking at the edges of your life, that the worms and maggots weren't already snapping at the sweet scent of your flesh, that time wasn't eating your pussy with its barbed tongue, that the shit and blood passing out of your body, which you flush away without even looking, was not always a reminder that your body never belonged to you; it was always already disintegrating, leaking, provisional, on loan, from the kingdom of bone and snail and ash. You've enjoyed your flirtation with death; you've enjoyed your round of slumming in this metaphysical ghetto. But you've forgotten something: for me this is no flirtation. This death is the only life I have left. And I will not be abandoned. I can swallow you whole."
The Regrets is Amy Bonnaffons first novel-length project, and I knew after reading [b:The Wrong Heaven|36546654|The Wrong Heaven|Amy Bonnaffons|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511291691l/36546654._SY75_.jpg|58278228] in 2018 that The Regrets would be an automatic purchase. Bonnaffons' writing is weird and wonderful and I knew that any story with a premise like that promised in The Regrets would have much more lurking under the surface...and I was not disappointed.
Split between two primary narrators, Thomas and Rachel, we see the evolution of a romantic relationship. The first blush of flirtation, the inevitable falling together, and the eventual disillusion. The catch is that Thomas is dead. With her characters in place, Bonnaffons performs an autopsy on relationships taking the 'meet cute' trope and exorcising it, thus making The Regrets a thinly veiled metaphor for toxic relationships...and yet, also, showcasing everything that can be magical, tender, and lovely about love. This is a genre-jumping, wild story. It's philosophical, beautifully dark, and haunting.
The Regrets is Amy Bonnaffons first novel-length project, and I knew after reading [b:The Wrong Heaven|36546654|The Wrong Heaven|Amy Bonnaffons|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511291691l/36546654._SY75_.jpg|58278228] in 2018 that The Regrets would be an automatic purchase. Bonnaffons' writing is weird and wonderful and I knew that any story with a premise like that promised in The Regrets would have much more lurking under the surface...and I was not disappointed.
Split between two primary narrators, Thomas and Rachel, we see the evolution of a romantic relationship. The first blush of flirtation, the inevitable falling together, and the eventual disillusion. The catch is that Thomas is dead. With her characters in place, Bonnaffons performs an autopsy on relationships taking the 'meet cute' trope and exorcising it, thus making The Regrets a thinly veiled metaphor for toxic relationships...and yet, also, showcasing everything that can be magical, tender, and lovely about love. This is a genre-jumping, wild story. It's philosophical, beautifully dark, and haunting.
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes