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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I really liked this, but the plot was very ethereal, and it would probably be best absorbed over multiple reads.

I generally love a good, lyrical narrative, but for me this one was lyrical at the expense of the narrative. The underlying story line was intriguing, but the elaborate descriptions of people and places and the florid language made it difficult for me to even follow the story line or feel at all connected to the characters. This is a Nobel-prize-winning author, so maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough for this one, but it was not for me.

Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 2
Story: 3
Characters: 2
Emotional impact: 2
Overall rating: 2.25

The Fox was Ever the Hunter was a bit of a difficult read for several reasons and the way it was written was the main one. There were little things like how there are no speech marks when someone is talking, so you definitely needed to pay attention to what’s going on – especially when there was more than one person talking in a paragraph. Then there’s the attention to detail the author has. There’s so much focus on tiny things like the creases in a dress, how ants move, or how the chalk is like on a blackboard, but when it comes to the characters, they don’t get much description or backstory at all. It’s almost like it’s an intense study of the time period it’s set. This writing style makes the characters very distant and hard to connect with, as it’s as if the environment they live in is more important than themselves.

The main plot of the secret police, and someone in their friendship group not being trustworthy, doesn’t really kick in till halfway through the book. The first half of The Fox was Ever the Hunter is more of a study of the environment the characters live in. The intense descriptions make the town feel like a very cold and unwelcoming place to live. It seems almost hopeless and when Adina, Paul, or Clara make an appearance they feel like they’re sleepwalking through their lives.

I could see some people loving how The Fox was Ever the Hunter was written as its prose is often poetic and strangely beautiful, but for me it made it a bit of a slog to read.
slow-paced

While clearly powerful, this novel was really tense and depressing.
reflective slow-paced
dark reflective medium-paced

Furnica trage după ea o muscă moartă. Furnica nu vede drumul, răstoarnă musca şi se târăşte înapoi. Musca e de trei ori mai mare decât furnica. Adina îşi retrage cotul, nu vrea să-i blocheze muştei drumul. Lângă genunchiul Adinei e un bulgăre de catran, se coace în soare. II împunge cu degetul. De sub mână iese un fir de catran, se întăreşte în aer şi se frânge.
Furnica are un cap cât gămălia unui bold; în el soarele nu-şi află loc să ardă. înţeapă. Furnica nu mai ştie încotro s-o apuce. Se târăşte fară să trăiască, pentru nici un ochi ea nu poate fi un animal. Şi păstăile ierburilor se târăsc la marginea oraşului la fel ca ea. Musca trăieşte, fiind de trei ori mai mare, şi este şi cărată de altul; pentru orice ochi musca e un animal.
Clara nu vede musca, soarele e un dovleac aprins. Te orbeşte. Coapsele Clarei sunt larg desfăcute, între genunchi îi stau mâinile. Acolo unde chilotul îi intră între coapse se văd perii ruşinii. Sub perii ruşinii se află o foarfecă, o papiotă cu aţă albă, nişte ochelari de soare şi un degetar. Clara îşi coase o bluză de vară. Acul se înfige, aţa face noduri, mă-ta pe gheaţă, spune Clara şi-şi linge sângele de pe deget. O înjurătură de gheaţă, de mama acelor, a firelor, a aţei. Când înjură Clara, totul are o mamă. Mama acului e locul care sângerează. Mama acului e mai bătrână decât toate acele din lume, ea le-a născut pe toate, ea caută, la fiecare mână care coase pe acest pământ, un deget bun de înţepat pentru toate acele ei. în sudalmă lumea e mică; deasupra ei atârnă un bulgăre de sânge. Şi în sudalmă mama pândeşte un mosor cu firele încâlcite deasupra lumii.