Soma
3.30
Read it when my prepubescent brain wanted to surf on hormonal waves produced as a result of reading the genre: fantasy and promptly produced serotonin upon any mention of the word “witch” -well this book had two-
* milk teeth studded jaw drop *
5 for the writing
4 for the plot and story
3.5 overall. Mainly coz people aren't as black and white as it makes out to be
2.5 honest stars
I like the way race and cancel culture is woven into the story but the actual substance of it feels too little. We have a white blonde mom who knows how to keep a grudge and a “nice”, mostly indifferent black 25yo trying to figure out her life. All in all it seems to me that the weight of the paper used in this book is perhaps not equal to its weight in content.
This book reminded me why women and perseverance go hand in hand. A woman knows pain from very early on in life. She experiences it and registers it even before she has learnt the words to describe what she feels. Perhaps as a child not preferred by parents simply because she is born a she, or in the way she is declared less competent, inferior, hopeless - with no fault of her own.
She then forms some disfigured perspective about herself in her own head, learns her “place” in family, and strives hard and fast to fill the ever widening tranche that is “societal expectation”. As she struggles through puberty, her changing body, the changing attitudes of those around her - about her, she meets the physical pain of the ability to nurture life inside her. But at least this pain is distinct, it can be recognized, it announces it's timely arrival, and can be expected to end. Unlike the other pain of being the other sex. Which hardly ever takes a transient form and barely ever lifts the fog from her tinted reality.
She tries to find someone to share this with, voice her thoughts to. Someone who will accept her as she is, let her speak and feel heard. For she has talked a lot in life but no one seemed to hear her. Perhaps it is called listening only if it influences another, births a difference in the ether? She finds some one, oh yes, but two decades of giving her all go by and she is yet to feel heard. Why is she scared to demand more, ask for more you say? Why won't she voice what it is she desires, what will make her feel heard and might just be a respectable attempt at happiness?
Because the ghosts of the pain have rendered her mute. Taken the very words off her tongue, wiped the light from her eyes. Shaped her thoughts such that no truth about herself can ease away the dark. One question remains...
Is there hope in this world..? And if yes, is it enough to find her?
This is the story of a woman striving for an answer. It is about moving past enforced ideas of the self, finding meaning through what you are able to do now, about loving beyond fear. It is about what it means to be a woman: to persevere despite this world, to bloom instead of it, and to become the hope you seek.
3.5stars.
Her writing style is simply amazing. How can someone be crystal clear, icy precise and poetic at the same time?? She drives the point home with every single word. I doubt I'll ever come across a sentence from Ayn Rand which doesn't have a more intricate. purpose.
I liked the storyline+writing so much that I deducted only 1.5 stars when she decided to make the female lead follow the male character (as if her religion) whilst talking about ego, the self, and “that part of you which must not be touched by any state, any man” as the very foundation of the book. Disheartening
Confusing storyline with flimsy substance, bland characters and honestly a story that goes nowhere.
I enjoyed the bits on Alaskan history but the rest of it seemed like trying too hard to spin a tale - with very little yarn.
Also the ending is really unfitting.