Scan barcode
best_rat's review
dark
mysterious
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
Albeit an atmospheric read, fares as shittily as a flockful of bird droppings as a crime novel, and unfortunately, that was the intended purpose of my reading. But even more problematic than that is the constantly antagonizing tone of the narrative and the main character's deranged psyche left completely uncharted.
As a transparent mystery, the plot is granted autheticity only through inexplicable idolatry of a set of degenerate esoteric interests. The inner monologue of the main character is filled to the brim with cognitive biases remained unresolved and unsorted, and although blaming her surroundings of vile hypocrisy, we see in her vicious lashout against animal cruelty (the bane of her worries) the reductionary quality of other kinds of cruelty against the living. When confronted with violence, responding with violence to demonstrate your disapproval is neither revolutionary nor logical. It is also pretty much useless, and only causes more destruction. It is, more importantly a petty move that makes nill of a perfectly sound cause and does it, moreover, even injustice. The revenge plot may move you emotionally, yet it virtually changes nothing in the system opposed to. One still ends up being stuck in one's ivory tower. The protagonist at some point early on also seems to be acknowledging this fact. "My efforts are insignificant" is declared, in a morbid passage on the ephemeral condition of human existence, one of the few parts of the text that truly got me thinking. Unfortunately, the grief-stricken, eccentric mind of a ethically charged murderer is somehow managed to be left alone in a sort of lazy man's first-person narrative, with minimal disruption in the form of occasional nightmares. While commiting the very act of cruelty that shaken her to the core in "Anger", she remains desentisized, unperturbed, and even proud and full of self-righteousness. The very image of hypocrisy and the "insignia of power" she shed tears in opposition to, yet no more. Another good intention doomed to fail through human vanity, the source thereof remaining indisputable.
Imagine all the fun duality that left unexplored. For shame, surely not what Raskolnikov should've taught you!
Imagine all the fun duality that left unexplored. For shame, surely not what Raskolnikov should've taught you!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Misogyny, Mental illness, and Sexism
Minor: Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting
uranaishi's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Murder
Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Ableism, Medical content, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual content, Body shaming, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Vomit
More...