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mapleleaf_rag's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Continue reading it. You’ll be confused most of the time but it’s worth it.
My favorite line:
„At some point everyone who had ever known you, including much younger people, would forget you and die without ever having told people even younger than themselves about you—and then you would really be gone. Miss Vicks had had a love story, but who could remember it? It was said Miss Vicks, herself, remembered nothing. Mary hit Eddie on the head with her wand to get his attention when they were in some play together but all that happened was he got a bloody nose afterward. If you wanted to be remembered you had to become famous—that was the lesson history taught you, if you chose to pay attention to it. Even so, the person you’d been, the person who breathed and had blood circulating through every part of herself, would be gone. „
My favorite line:
„At some point everyone who had ever known you, including much younger people, would forget you and die without ever having told people even younger than themselves about you—and then you would really be gone. Miss Vicks had had a love story, but who could remember it? It was said Miss Vicks, herself, remembered nothing. Mary hit Eddie on the head with her wand to get his attention when they were in some play together but all that happened was he got a bloody nose afterward. If you wanted to be remembered you had to become famous—that was the lesson history taught you, if you chose to pay attention to it. Even so, the person you’d been, the person who breathed and had blood circulating through every part of herself, would be gone. „
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Sexual content
categal's review against another edition
5.0
This might be the most out-there book I’ve ever read. I didn’t like it, then I thought it was ok, then I finished it and did something that I’ve never done before in all my years of reading: I immediately read it again. Is it fantasy? Is it sci-fi? Or is it only showing the way the world looks to a child? Here are some lines that stuck with me:
“Pet care didn’t come naturally to the robots — they found it difficult to fathom the relationship between humans and animals. Sometimes we befriended them, sometimes we made things out of them like shoes or belts, often we ate them. Occasionally humans took the form of animals and when this happened they were always kinder than regular human beings.”
Davis’ descriptions are wonderful. They create her world at the same time they are commenting on ours.
“The difference between a summer rental and a summer residence was like the difference between a human and a fairy.”
This is just beautiful:
“The air was still warm but it had a cool blade in it, sharpening the shadows of the sycamores.”
And this made me laugh aloud:
“Whoever was playing the piano was proficient but musically oblivious....”
I absolutely love this book.
What exactly is going on?
I don’t know, but I will read it again.
“Pet care didn’t come naturally to the robots — they found it difficult to fathom the relationship between humans and animals. Sometimes we befriended them, sometimes we made things out of them like shoes or belts, often we ate them. Occasionally humans took the form of animals and when this happened they were always kinder than regular human beings.”
Davis’ descriptions are wonderful. They create her world at the same time they are commenting on ours.
“The difference between a summer rental and a summer residence was like the difference between a human and a fairy.”
This is just beautiful:
“The air was still warm but it had a cool blade in it, sharpening the shadows of the sycamores.”
And this made me laugh aloud:
“Whoever was playing the piano was proficient but musically oblivious....”
I absolutely love this book.
What exactly is going on?
I don’t know, but I will read it again.
oedipamaas69's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
ailsahatton's review against another edition
4.0
Well that was... new. Disturbing and WEIRD but lovely at the same time? There was gorgeous imagery in it that just stuck to me, but when someone asked me what my book was about, my answer was along the lines of: 'Uhm no idea. Souls and soulmates and sort of sci fi and weirdness I guess?' and at that point I was more than half way through. I didn't feel frustrated by it like I usually do with things that don't really make sense though. It was dream-like in a way I didn't need to make total sense, and that was sort of wonderful. I'm not sure I'd recommend this without a whole lot of caveats, but it was really pretty in a disturbing and weird as hell way so.
Also there was a not-quite-human-child named after the colour of her eyes who may or may not have been a yellow teddy bear lesbian so there's that.
But actually I think the best thing I can do to recommend this book is give you this quote: 'She thought it was probably a good idea to like being looked at if you were a girl - it was probably key to survival. If you were a gorilla it was the other way around. Somewhere the girl had read that if you looked a gorilla in the eye it would strangle you.'
BOSS LIKE.
Also there was a not-quite-human-child named after the colour of her eyes who may or may not have been a yellow teddy bear lesbian so there's that.
But actually I think the best thing I can do to recommend this book is give you this quote: 'She thought it was probably a good idea to like being looked at if you were a girl - it was probably key to survival. If you were a gorilla it was the other way around. Somewhere the girl had read that if you looked a gorilla in the eye it would strangle you.'
BOSS LIKE.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful, weird and thought-provoking. Must re-read.
tonythep's review against another edition
5.0
It took me literally a year to read this book. I started it last fall and was enchanted. For some reason, about halfway through I put it down and never picked it back up again. Until last week, when I started over from the beginning. Perhaps this strange and beautiful book needed to be read one and a half times to be appreciated. I can't say that I fully understand this disturbing, poetic fable, but it is truly amazing.
catbooking's review against another edition
3.0
For the first few pages of the book I had the suspicion that I was reading something like the movie “Dark City”, where things don't make sense but everyone on the page pretends that they do and goes on about their life. As I kept reading, however, I had to abandon that earlier assumption.
I do not think there is anything paranormal or supernatural happening in the story. All the talk of sorcerers and robots and girls turned into beads is a way for a highly restrictive society, 50s US, to talk about things you are not allowed to talk about openly. Two young mothers gossiping about the new family that moved in next door may not refer to the newcomers as 'robots' but the group of girls listening nearby may pick up on the perceived oddness of the family and use the term when referencing the family in their social circle. Same can be said for the girls that stopped being girls and the girls that never were girls in the first place, or the son of the local landowner visiting the community to 'hunt' but never being part of it himself.
The unsettling clinical descriptions of sex, or arguably sexual assault, reminded me of a discussion I read not too long ago. Sex, and sexual violence, is usually used to show the depravity of a villain or to demonstrate the suffering of a female character, rarely is it used for a positive exploration of a female character's sexuality. While I do not think I would enjoy reading about the opposite, a penis serving as a catalyst in a female character discovering herself, I do notice myself taking a closer look to how sex is depicted in print.
In this case specifically, sex is accompanied by either discomfort, fear, and symbolic destruction in the eyes of society or is so mechanical as to not rise above clinical descriptions of a pumping motion. Even while the two destined lovebirds are doing it, it seems that both of them are only going through the motions and neither of them are enjoying it. That would place this book squarely into the bin of sex being a solely negative experience for women, both the act and the consequence of it.
Ultimately, I think the story is about feeling like your whole life is wasted if you only do what you think society expects from you and if you never make any decisions for yourself. But even if you do make the conscious choice to do what society tells you as to better 'fit in' you are still going to be miserable. Or, if you are one of those lucky enough to force your choices on others, your life is not going to be full of happiness either. So misery for everybody! And here I made a promise to myself to read more optimistic books.
I do not think there is anything paranormal or supernatural happening in the story. All the talk of sorcerers and robots and girls turned into beads is a way for a highly restrictive society, 50s US, to talk about things you are not allowed to talk about openly. Two young mothers gossiping about the new family that moved in next door may not refer to the newcomers as 'robots' but the group of girls listening nearby may pick up on the perceived oddness of the family and use the term when referencing the family in their social circle. Same can be said for the girls that stopped being girls and the girls that never were girls in the first place, or the son of the local landowner visiting the community to 'hunt' but never being part of it himself.
The unsettling clinical descriptions of sex, or arguably sexual assault, reminded me of a discussion I read not too long ago. Sex, and sexual violence, is usually used to show the depravity of a villain or to demonstrate the suffering of a female character, rarely is it used for a positive exploration of a female character's sexuality. While I do not think I would enjoy reading about the opposite, a penis serving as a catalyst in a female character discovering herself, I do notice myself taking a closer look to how sex is depicted in print.
In this case specifically, sex is accompanied by either discomfort, fear, and symbolic destruction in the eyes of society or is so mechanical as to not rise above clinical descriptions of a pumping motion. Even while the two destined lovebirds are doing it, it seems that both of them are only going through the motions and neither of them are enjoying it. That would place this book squarely into the bin of sex being a solely negative experience for women, both the act and the consequence of it.
Ultimately, I think the story is about feeling like your whole life is wasted if you only do what you think society expects from you and if you never make any decisions for yourself. But even if you do make the conscious choice to do what society tells you as to better 'fit in' you are still going to be miserable. Or, if you are one of those lucky enough to force your choices on others, your life is not going to be full of happiness either. So misery for everybody! And here I made a promise to myself to read more optimistic books.
chaserush's review against another edition
4.25
Compelling, strange, and deeply moving. Davis is masterful here at painting over the most mundane existences with surreal, dreamy colors. The plot veers into the abstract, and the lack of narrative cohesion points instead toward the striking emotions the descriptions and dialogue leaves you with at the close of each chapter/story.
An introspective look at what it means to grow up (mainly as a young girl) and what it feels like to look back on your life and either realize you’ve wasted it or notice the all of the beautifully mundane steps you took to land you where you are.
An introspective look at what it means to grow up (mainly as a young girl) and what it feels like to look back on your life and either realize you’ve wasted it or notice the all of the beautifully mundane steps you took to land you where you are.