Kam
Okay so this wasn’t an entirely bad read. I thought the language was lovely, and that’s primarily what kept me chugging through this and helped me get through it in, like, three days or so. It’s a great example of how good writing can make a book really just fly by even when the plot’s not really that propulsive.
However, for all that the writing is amazing and is absolutely the best aspect of this novel, it does have problems. For one, the choice to write primarily in third-person but constantly hop between characters, as well as focus primarily on the interior thoughts of those characters instead of letting some of that work itself out in dialogue, means that the reader is always holding the characters at arm’s length. Not to say there’s anything particularly wrong with that technique, but in combination with the constant switching of POV from one character to another, it just felt a little dizzying. Any time the narrative settled down on one particular character’s POV it felt like a relief; here was a chance to really get to know this particular character, to see what made them tick. But then the next chapter would arrive and the POV would switch again; hell, that would happen even in the middle of the chapter.
The constant hopping around also did some rather unflattering things to the narrative’s timeline. While the writing was able to hold everything together and give a proper sense of when events were happening, there were times when the story would slide backwards or even forwards a little in time. I kind of understand why this was done (reflect the fluidity of time that tends to happen in long-running friendships when considering actual time passed versus the amount of time spent with each other), but I can see why some readers might not appreciate it. However, I can only extend that grace towards the slides back into the past; the glimpses of the future don’t get as much grace from me because I thought they didn’t serve much purpose, even for foreshadowing (and honestly, the author seems like a sufficiently capable writer that they can create good foreshadowing instead of dropping bald-faced statements of the future in the narrative).
To be honest, the story felt like watching a TV show: maybe a reality show, or a drama series. The distance at which the narrative holds the characters, as well as the flashbacks, contributed to make it feel like the kind of show one puts on in the background while one is doing other things, and all one has to do to catch up is to make sure one sees the “Last week on…” catch-up, or make sure to pause every so often to take in ten to twenty minutes of the episode, before moving on to other tasks. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I would not say it’s flattering, either.
Overall, this wasn’t all that bad a read. The language and writing style are fantastic and engaging, and the exploration of long-term female friendship was pretty well executed. The problem comes in when one tries to get to know the characters: a difficult task, given that the narrative as a whole seems to hold them all at a remove, and keeps jumping POV from one to the other so that there’s no time to really settle into their heads and a get a good grasp of what each woman is really like. There’s also the way the narrative keeps sliding along the timeline: while the flashbacks aren’t all that bad (if a bit much), the narrative constantly shifting between past and present, in tandem with the constant shifts in POV, gives the narrative a very TV show-esque feel. Some readers might be all right with that, but others might not appreciate it.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.
Okay so this wasn’t an entirely bad read. I thought the language was lovely, and that’s primarily what kept me chugging through this and helped me get through it in, like, three days or so. It’s a great example of how good writing can make a book really just fly by even when the plot’s not really that propulsive.
However, for all that the writing is amazing and is absolutely the best aspect of this novel, it does have problems. For one, the choice to write primarily in third-person but constantly hop between characters, as well as focus primarily on the interior thoughts of those characters instead of letting some of that work itself out in dialogue, means that the reader is always holding the characters at arm’s length. Not to say there’s anything particularly wrong with that technique, but in combination with the constant switching of POV from one character to another, it just felt a little dizzying. Any time the narrative settled down on one particular character’s POV it felt like a relief; here was a chance to really get to know this particular character, to see what made them tick. But then the next chapter would arrive and the POV would switch again; hell, that would happen even in the middle of the chapter.
The constant hopping around also did some rather unflattering things to the narrative’s timeline. While the writing was able to hold everything together and give a proper sense of when events were happening, there were times when the story would slide backwards or even forwards a little in time. I kind of understand why this was done (reflect the fluidity of time that tends to happen in long-running friendships when considering actual time passed versus the amount of time spent with each other), but I can see why some readers might not appreciate it. However, I can only extend that grace towards the slides back into the past; the glimpses of the future don’t get as much grace from me because I thought they didn’t serve much purpose, even for foreshadowing (and honestly, the author seems like a sufficiently capable writer that they can create good foreshadowing instead of dropping bald-faced statements of the future in the narrative).
To be honest, the story felt like watching a TV show: maybe a reality show, or a drama series. The distance at which the narrative holds the characters, as well as the flashbacks, contributed to make it feel like the kind of show one puts on in the background while one is doing other things, and all one has to do to catch up is to make sure one sees the “Last week on…” catch-up, or make sure to pause every so often to take in ten to twenty minutes of the episode, before moving on to other tasks. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I would not say it’s flattering, either.
Overall, this wasn’t all that bad a read. The language and writing style are fantastic and engaging, and the exploration of long-term female friendship was pretty well executed. The problem comes in when one tries to get to know the characters: a difficult task, given that the narrative as a whole seems to hold them all at a remove, and keeps jumping POV from one to the other so that there’s no time to really settle into their heads and a get a good grasp of what each woman is really like. There’s also the way the narrative keeps sliding along the timeline: while the flashbacks aren’t all that bad (if a bit much), the narrative constantly shifting between past and present, in tandem with the constant shifts in POV, gives the narrative a very TV show-esque feel. Some readers might be all right with that, but others might not appreciate it.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.