Amanda

3.75 ⭐️

I have a habit of avoiding synopses so that I don't spoil the plot, but about 60% through I realized I had no idea what the plot even was, which feels pretty indicative of how meandering this book is. As any other Emily St. John Mandel book, we follow different characters along their intersecting paths through time, so “meandering” is expected to some degree. There were so many paths, though, that it was difficult to parse the actual through line. Eventually, the thread of each character's moral ambiguity becomes more clear: they make choices and use each other out of desperation and survival, rarely with the intention of causing harm. Though there's so much truth to it, the themes felt a bit thin, but also I think it all just made me feel sad. Did I enjoy it? Sure, Emily St. John Mandel is always enjoyable, but I'm not sure if I liked any of the characters, and I probably wouldn't recommend it.

4.25 ⭐️

This book feels like a love child between The Secret History and Gillian Flynn, so I thought I'd like it, even though Storygraph's AI said I probably wouldn't because it's of the “Crime” genre. The AI was right. Even though this is a bit of a satire on the True Crime genre as a whole, it's still true crime and I'm just not a True Crime murder girly.

Penance is a novel about the brutal murder of a teenage girl by her classmates, and the town where they all live. Very much like The Virgin Suicides, Penance is more interested in creating a robust picture of the characters involved—the murderers, the victim, their families, their neighbors—and is less concerned in recounting the events of the murder. My favorite aspect was how characters' actions and words—fueled by their own insecurities and traumas—rippled into each other's lives. No one was solely guilty, no one was fully innocent.

It's tricky, because as ART, Penance is 10/10. The narration style is ingenious, the character development is perfect, but I was gripped until I wasn't...then it started to slog for me and I considered DNFing. I am glad I didn't, though.

Incredible novel that just isn't for me. Objectively 5 stars, but subjectively I'd give it 3.5.

I started this book four months ago and a good 60% of it was, frankly, boring. Also, there's a 4-way love triangle that one character isn't even aware of and it's all very men-don't-know-how-to-write-women, which is a bummer. But this book was written over 40 years ago and if the romance in it is mostly just cringe, that's a pretty positive review. I don't really fault Robert Jordan for it.

All that said, the I loved the first half of the book when we were still in the borderlands and the last 10 chapters when the action started ramping up. Still totally in love with these characters, the world, and this story.

4.5 ⭐️

3.25⭐️

The story is great, but the main character is insufferable and after 10 chapters the writing is tedious.