vigil's reviews
189 reviews

this book honestly reads as extremely uninspired and derivative. i think it is unfair to compare books and authors to each other, but once i read that rivers solomon was an inspiration to the author, it was extremely clear to me why. 

if you entered this book for the sea creature element, and you enjoyed the commentary on trauma, and all the other shit that fucked up baby started spouting towards the end, read the deep by rivers solomon, which a better take on the subjects by a mile. 

this book tried to posit itself and its character work as something it wasn’t, and this is at it’s clearest in the ending, that is meant to be a kind of reclamation of oneself and autonomy, but to the reader, evidently less concerned with symbolism than the author, it comes across as a new kind of chain. really, the prose is lovely, and the atmosphere is strong, rocklyn conveys very visceral horror and emotions through the protagonist’s experience, but there’s really nothing in this book that justifies reading it.

i feel odd rating this, but it really deserves five stars.

i enjoy the way this book was written, each portion was a genuine piece into her thought process at the time, rather than her current reflections on her past, i think that made navigating her transitions in life seamlessly, as we were able to see where she was coming from, how she got there, and with the ironic humor and knowledge of jennette now, where she’d end up going.

i will say of the humor, it is more of the darkly comedic sort, heavily relying on how absurd her situations are (and they’re very very absurd) as well as a heaping dose of irony. that being said, it doesn’t have the “laugh out loud” quality i feel it has been tagged with, though perhaps the audiobook might. this book is deeply harrowing and the “humorous quality” depending on your perspective, may or may not enhance that.

i picked this up on a whim because i liked the cover at the library, and ultimately i'm glad that i did. 

i really enjoyed the prose and atmosphere of the book, so much so that despite my (currently in flux) feelings about the ending i'm totally interested in picking up another book from her. going into this, my only awareness of the story was the basic description on the backcover, (sidenote: this cover is absolutely stunning on both sides) a modern fairytale about a mother attempting to retrieve her daughter. as the narrative moved forward, it began to weave in other myths and folklore, to varying degrees of success, but in regards to its advertised and original intention, i think it did it very well. 

i was almost immediately pulled in by the hazy atmosphere of the story, befitting both the fairytale aspect, and the character one, as fay is lost in her own grief. i would have liked to see more urgency regarding that in the story, as i don't know if i was feeling my own anticipation, or something actually being built into the story. considering the ending, i'm leaning towards the former. i enjoyed fay as a character, but the writing for her made her come across much younger than she actually was at times. unfortunately, i felt like she was the one character that was fleshed out the most, and everyone more or less existing as plot devices

or as the vehicle to provide the twist ending.

i think this idea and its execution was inventive and very intriguing, but is cramped by the lack of narrative space. personally speaking, i think making this book longer would've given it the room it needed to breathe. especially in regard to the twist ending, which in my opinion, is already somewhat odd, but bogged down by how vague, abrupt, short, and thus unsatisfying it is. if you can't figure out a way to properly justify and explain a twist, especially in an ending, its probably cheap, and better left behind. this ending especially did not seem to line up with the narrative or protagonist that we've been getting familiar with.

i mean. if you establish a character willing to lose every aspect of herself for her daughter, why would you have her willing stay with the man who murdered her, with no established build up? i understood the thematic purpose of the final epilogue, but i think this book suffered from more symbolism than sense.

i feel like informative is a rather lacking as a term to refer to this as but, i don’t know a better one. so yes,  this was informative.

legitimately, it had me thinking about writing in ways that, even i as a person of color, have never really had the mind to consider before. this book really does read as a miniature course in fiction writing, which tends to make it quite dense in information,  though i found  he does take care to make sure it is still easily readable. (whatever that means.)

i checked this out from my library, and i will be purchasing this for myself in the future, because this is a book that you could (and absolutely should) read time and time again because it offers up new insights and understandings every time.

i especially enjoyed the examples of alternative crafts from african and asian writings. i’d say a pitfall of this book is that these are largely the only examples of diverse fiction, but the author did say at the beginning that it was in no way intended to be comprehensive, and it seems like he went with works that were familiar to him. the author mentioned his intention with this book was to bring about the start of a conversation and in my opinion he succeeded in that. 

i will admit that I did not read this book cover to cover as there is a section dedicated to workshops, which is not currently applicable in my life, so those pages were mostly skimmed. however did appreciate the questionnaire (or rather, guide) in the section “Syllabus Example” about how you should be looking at your work and others. if you are a writer yourself, i highly recommend reading through the appendix section for the writing exercises, and at least skim through the workshop portion regardless of whether or not you are currently or planning to attend one.

i found the ending very satisfying for denji, and a good wrap up to part one, but once the insanity died down something seemed missing. i will definitely be continuing on to the next part though. 

i really loved how this volume continued to build on the previous events and character development that was being set up prior, even if it was only doing it to sucker punch me. 

everything about about aki in this volume was perfect and devastating. you should’ve taken angel’s advice and ran :(