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samikoonjones's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Dementia
penelopereads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Can’t make up my mind about this book. It’s uh... transgressive. I was filled with a sense of dread reading it. It’s grimy.
The storytelling is good though and you name it - the author went there. The writing also stopped me in my tracks a few times.
Still, I don’t really know what to think. Is it really bad or really good? Someone please tell me where I should land.
The storytelling is good though and you name it - the author went there. The writing also stopped me in my tracks a few times.
Still, I don’t really know what to think. Is it really bad or really good? Someone please tell me where I should land.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, and Dementia
hannahmayreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"I am grieving but it is too early to burn the body."
This is the third book (almost in a row) that I've read recently that features dementia, with the repercussions of the loss forming a central point in the novel. Coincidence or not, and despite each book being very different, it is a thread that will always bind them together in my mind. They (The Last Wave and Ghosts) are all such different stories told by very different writers but the suspended grief of mourning someone who remains only bodily runs through each of them.
The fracturing of her mother's memory sends Antara searching through her own memory. The trauma, the toxicity and the secrets of her past and present are drawn to the forefront of her mind. It is as if her mother's shifting conception of reality is forcing her to reconsider the validity of her own memories. Who is she and did she get here? Are these questions she can even answer? As her mother's memory slips further Antara's own daughter comes into the world, and the mother-daughter relationship shifts again.
"Maybe we would have been better if I had never been designated as her undoing. How do I stop myself from making the same mistake? How do I protect this little girl from the same burden? Maybe that's impossible. Maybe this is wishful thinking."
The cover quote for this book is absolutely spot-on: taut, unsettling, ferocious (Fatima Bhutto in case you were wondering).
"I will never be free of her. She's in my marrow and I'll never be immune."
This is the third book (almost in a row) that I've read recently that features dementia, with the repercussions of the loss forming a central point in the novel. Coincidence or not, and despite each book being very different, it is a thread that will always bind them together in my mind. They (The Last Wave and Ghosts) are all such different stories told by very different writers but the suspended grief of mourning someone who remains only bodily runs through each of them.
The fracturing of her mother's memory sends Antara searching through her own memory. The trauma, the toxicity and the secrets of her past and present are drawn to the forefront of her mind. It is as if her mother's shifting conception of reality is forcing her to reconsider the validity of her own memories. Who is she and did she get here? Are these questions she can even answer? As her mother's memory slips further Antara's own daughter comes into the world, and the mother-daughter relationship shifts again.
"Maybe we would have been better if I had never been designated as her undoing. How do I stop myself from making the same mistake? How do I protect this little girl from the same burden? Maybe that's impossible. Maybe this is wishful thinking."
The cover quote for this book is absolutely spot-on: taut, unsettling, ferocious (Fatima Bhutto in case you were wondering).
"I will never be free of her. She's in my marrow and I'll never be immune."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Dementia, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity
nora__reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.0
I can understand the many merits of this book. It is a clever and considered novel asking questions about memory and their changeable nature, family relationships (particularly mother daughter relationships), the consequences for women who choose to make themselves happy and obsession.
But I didn’t enjoy it. It was a very slow read, too clever for its own good, prizing point-making over storytelling all wrapped up in a pessimistic narrator who left me feeling hopeless.
If you want something slow which will make you think then go for it, but I was in the wrong mood at the time.
But I didn’t enjoy it. It was a very slow read, too clever for its own good, prizing point-making over storytelling all wrapped up in a pessimistic narrator who left me feeling hopeless.
If you want something slow which will make you think then go for it, but I was in the wrong mood at the time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization
empresstree's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Dementia