Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

18 reviews

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

2.5

This was definitely a weird one for me. It was recommended to me because the old woman is a curmudgeon which is true and I do technically love a curmudgeon. But I’m thinking maybe it just didn’t translate for me into English from Czech? The old woman’s eccentricities I think were what ended up kind of putting me off the book. Her belief in astrology and palm reading and such were just too out there for me. But she does get sweet vengeance in the end so I’m glad I finished it and didn’t just give up on it. But definitely only recommending to friends who love Czech literature and astrology 😝

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faloneran's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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uranaishi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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rupesaltai's review

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I borrowed this book from a friend and (even though she won the Nobel prize for literature) I didn't know much about the author or what the book was about. I was in for a ride.

The prose of the book is one of the most beautiful I've read in quite a long time, it's poetic even when describing what can be gruesome. The main character appeared to me as rather uncommon (a quirky old woman, kind of a rebel, child-free, who is deeply into astrology, social justice, and translating poetry) who felt incredibly real and mutidimensional, as did most of the secondary and side characters.

The story in itself is engaging, full of twists and turns, and surprising until the very end.

I don't think I could recommend this book enough.

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inhisbluegardens's review

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dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

This was an unusual, unexpected crime story that I really enjoyed!

Our protagonist is an eccentric lady in her 60s named Janina Duszenko, who lives on her own in the middle of nowhere near the Polish-Czech border. She is odd and hermit-like with a love of astrology and a great reverence for animals. Mrs Duszenko's perspective on the world and her understanding of the story's happenings are really what makes this a worthwhile read. Her complete belief in the logic she draws from the stars and the deep empathy she displays for animals and for people also considered to be on the outskirts of society in some way really puts us on her side, I feel. Her dedication to solving the mystery of four separate murders involving local hunters are the focus of the book, but it almost comes second to her musings on everything from the local mushroom pickers society to the rights of animals and the reasoning behind the names she bestows on others in her head. Mrs Duszenko's unique voice does a stellar job of putting the unsavoury sharply into focus but presenting it in a matter-of-fact way. Indeed, cruelty, loneliness, exploitation and addiction can all be explained by the planetary alignments. The experience of reading this book is deepened by the way Tokarczuk writes about the landscape and the traditions that its people cling to. How we as humans, like all other living things mark the changing seasons.

Such an interesting read!

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paulasnotsosecretdiary's review

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is an excellent title for a book that celebrates, in part, William Blake's work. The book is part mystery using an unreliable narrator trope. There are many themes packed into the pages of this story: feminism, aging, social isolation, mental illness, and animal welfare. There are many stories I have read published after this book that borrows from its tropes (and some of them are not an improvement from the source material). However, I don't get why this book is so celebrated; it didn't engage me even though I could find a way into the story. There is foreshadowing at the start of the book when the central character talks about how much she hates one of the victims and that sometimes people need to die. From there, it was just a matter of when and how she would be revealed as the killer. This is one of those times when a book is admired or wins awards, and I wonder why. Maybe if I read Blake and studied him I would appreciate this story more. A meh from me.

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just_one_more_paige's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I have sort of been passively trying to meet some of the Reading Women prompts for 2021 – not as intensely as last year, but just for fun. And one of the prompts that I figured I just wouldn’t meet was to read a Crime Novel or Thriller in Translation…mostly because I just don’t read that genre. But I made a simultaneous passive goal of reading more Polish/Lithuanian literature (after Between Shades of Gray was a book club choice earlier this year). So, when I got this one out of the library, translated from Polish, and realized it was also a crime novel/thriller, I was weirdly excited to be able to meet a prompt I’d already written off. Checking things off a checklist is a super satisfying experience for this Type A reader.

Janina is an old woman, living in a remote Polish village and spending her days looking after the vacation homes of “big city” residents when they aren’t around, translating the poetry of William Blake with her friend Dizzy, calculating horoscopes, and just generally getting herself the reputation of the “crazy old lady who prefers animals to people.” When bodies starting turning up dead in her village, Janina has a few very specific ideas about who is behind the murders, but no one will listen.

This was absolutely unlike any thriller I’ve ever read before. I mean, it had all the “right” elements, a rural location, suspicious circumstances, evidence of shady dealings, incompetent local police and a fantastically creepy winter-in-the-woods sort of aura, but it had some incredibly unique additional characteristics. First of all, the narrator Janina. Goodness she was a hoot. A sort of quirky MC that came across like a mix of Eleanor Oliphant and A Man Called Ove – ornery and opinionated and very idiosyncratic, but with a very intelligent sort of bent to it all. Her philosophies, centered primarily around the absolute knowledge that can be gained from reading horoscopes and her fierce ideals about animals’ intelligence and humanity, all came across as incredibly peculiar, but also…kind of logical and believable? It was really interesting. I am not sure it’s a reading vibe I could have gotten through without the audiobook to help keep me moving, as it had a very theoretical and scholarly communication with a heavy lean into the [fairly on point] “everyone ignores old women” outlook, but I enjoyed the oddness of the combination in a single-serving way. (As in, I will not search out more of Tokarczuk’s work, I don’t think – or at least not any time soon – but I was bought in for experiencing it at least once.)

The other thing that really set this novel apart was the rumination on the nature of life and death, in connection with the cosmos, and with specific focus on animal rights and hunting politics. Janina’s narrative POV is very clearly on the side of pro-animal rights and anti-poaching/hunting (in her view, they are one in the same, since, whether legally sanctioned or not, the animals are killed in various and mostly inhumane ways) and, I’d like to reiterate, the cerebral way she addresses it is really hard to argue with. However, as the novel progresses its clear that though her ideas are based in a solid argument, there is clear potential for her mental state to take things past the point of socially acceptable ways of communicating it. And, whether merited or not, this is where she/Tokarczuk really fall into the way(s) that society overlooks old women. It could have just been really sad and upsetting to read, and yet Janina’s voice, as well as the turns the plot takes, really throw this idea over on its head, taking advantage of this discounting, instead of wallowing in it. Though it didn’t come quite as much of a shocking twist as I maybe would have wanted, the slow-dawning realization as the plot unfolded actually fit the vibe better than a surprise development would have, so I was ok with it.

Overall, this novel had a great creeping, meditative mystery vibe. It was incredibly atmospheric (I was totally transported this this rural Polish summer-vacation village) and Janina was a fantastic narrator, really pulling me into the flow of her life and story. The clever wordplay and the philosophical-ness of the writing were unique for a thriller and I appreciated that within a genre that’s not as known for it. While this wasn’t a favorite read for me, I liked some of the messages and was definitely satisfied with the way it wrapped up.

“Anger makes the mind clear ad incisive, able to see more. It sweeps up the other emotions and takes control of the body. Without a doubt Anger is the source of all wisdom, for Anger has the power to exceed any limits.”

“Once we reach a certain age, it’s hard to be reconciled to the fact that people are always going to be impatient with us.”

“It’s easier to cope with a snowstorm than a death.”

“It is as Dusk when the most interesting things occur, for that is when simple differences fade away.”

“Everything will pass. The wise Man knows this from the start, and has no regrets.”

“Anger always leaves a large void behind it, into which a flood of sorrow pours instantly, and keeps on flowing like a great river, without beginning or end.”

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amaezone's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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