Nick
Left with mixed feelings!! I think mostly I don't love that Achilles and Patroclus perspectives were included, it's giving - the girls continue to be silenced. If perhaps the story ended with only their perspectives and Briseis voice fully gone - giving into the title, maybe it would've made sense, but that doesn't happen, so why am I hearing these men speak at all? My interest really wavered through most of it, got good at the end. Perhaps bc I am already so familiar with Achilles story?
This has landed in my top 5 favorite books. Chilling, entertaining and most definitely thought provoking. The stark realities the author intertwines seamlessly keep the novel grounded, as we navigate biblical comparisons to modern life and generational/familial conflict. It's nice to interact with content where gen z isn't slandered for being chronically online and incapable of surviving on their own, rather, as adaptive and collected individuals while witnessing disasters of biblical proportions.
The setting of the book is so cozy but the characters lack depth. I feel it's an issue of translation, filled with quick-moving short sentences, simple language choices and telling rather than showing. I struggled so hard to connect with the characters and their relationships with one another. Why did it feel like the aunt was going to murder Takako?
A quick cozy read but focus on enjoying the settings of the story rather than the characters!
3.5 ⭐️ I feel like the synopsis gave the vibes of a very different book than we got. It gave big spooky ooky macabre in Argentina. What the book really covers is childhood and sociopolitical issues within Argentina using magic realism (most of which is focused around macabre events but I don't feel like that part was fully explored and remained rather mild in the grand scheme, as if trying to not lose sight of the realism hiding behind the magic. If the spookiness was pushed a little more I don't think the realism would've been lost and I think there could've been a greater depth of content). Once I got the behind the scenes, my understanding/appreciation of the book changed, encouraging me to connect the plots of the story to the real world. As I said, personally it didn't feel as dark and macabre as the synopsis leads one to believe, but also maybe I've just read a lot of weird/dark books so it didn't hit as hard as it may for others! Still overall an interesting book and format of covering tough social topics.
3.5⭐️ Sort of read like Theory. Meshing topics of AI and Non-binary & Trans community was interesting. Lots of civil (almost Socratic?) discourse between characters, not something we're used to in todays day and age of screaming wars...
Bringing Mary Shelley and Frankenstein was interesting, but a good break from the present day discourse content.
