jelly

It is hard to find the words to describe this novella. All I know is that it is Maupassant's first published work and it is a masterpiece. This book makes me feel angry at human nature. There's something unique to the 19th century in the deep and accurate description of human psychology. I don't know what else to say. It will disturb you, as it should, but read it.

French audiobook via Audiolube.

3.75 stars

The first 80% of the book were 5 stars, but then I don't know what happened at the end of the book. It's like the final pages were a summary of another book, with each sentence describing entire plots and events. Also, a lot of things stopped making sense. It's too bad...

Too much self-pitying.

I realized that I missed reading and reviewing this NetGalley ARC... back from 2016. Luckily, I found it at my library and just read it.

I started reading it without knowing anything about the plot. The beginning of the book feels like a mess of murders after murders without context. Mid-way, you understand that the main characters keep being reincarnated and keep killing each other. They don't know why, but they still do it. And they are supposed to always be attracted to each other and love each other... but they always kill each other when they meet? Doesn't make any sense to me.

It was intriguing enough to get more than a star, but not much more than that. I wouldn't recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I kind of see what the author wanted to do with this short story but the quality of the writing was way too low to make it a good story.

Some reviews suggest that the story could benefit from being a longer story, but I think it would actually be better as a flash fiction with fewer characters. It would have allowed the writer to (maybe) struggle less with the transitions between events, thoughts, and spatial dimensions.

The dialogues, the transitions, and the world building are the weaknesses of the story. The high level concept is what's slightly better.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.