RiffMonkey

I had picked this book to read for our book club and I am betrayed by my own choices. I disliked it immensely and don't think I would have kept on reading if I read it on my own. I noticed quite quickly that I didn't like the writing style, I left the prose was very flowery and cliche in a way. I didn't connect with any of the characters as they were literally all the same fucking person. 

Besides that fact, the story was not enjoyable. I had heard this described as a story of female empowerment, and I have no idea who the fuck thought that. The entire novel is about women in every generation being raped and abused and saying nothing, telling no one and just all around being the most docile little pushovers. They had absolutely no dimension and were defined often by either one thing or simply their relationship to a man. 

During the reading of this book, I have read multiple books featuring abusive relationships all of which are better and more believably portrayed than this. All of the men in this book were fucking assholes and the lesson of the story also seems to be ‘all men are trash'. You could make a drinking game of all the abuse triggery shit these men do and you would be black-out drunk by the end. 

The ending was also in no way satisfying. I was waiting very long for the magical realism this book is supposed to contain and had seen nothing of until literally the last 40 pages. When it finally showed up it was underwhelming and honestly boring. There were certain parts in the ending and epilogue where it was clear this was supposed to be an emotional bit and it all just fell flat. 

I don't know how many times I have layed the book on my chest after reading a chapter and just said to myself “what the fuck, what the actual fuck just happened”. This whole book is like one big fever dream and it was excellent. I imagine someone could go on and on analysing every tiny little detail of this and tell you why it was brilliant. I just know that it was. 

This is definitely not a book you want to read when you are having any sort of hallucination-ish symptoms of any kind. I learned that the hard way and put it away immediately. It definitely makes you think you are going insane. But I fucking love that. 

I have never read a book quite like this and I don't think I ever will again. It felt like this entire story was filled to the brim with countless metaphors and ways of viewing this story.  Every page felt like a poem, like the whole novel was one big poem. Or a love letter to love letters. 

Usually, I really enjoy it when authors explain every detail of their world and how everything works. Here their was barely any explanation and thought I understood everything I needed too, I still feel confused about how this world is supposed to work. But the beauty of it is that it's so important because it really doesn't matter for the story. I read the whole thing in one day, what a wild ride.  

One thing that did strike is that when reading the characters and the letters, Blue and Red did not have a very distinctive way of speaking, the letters could have been from the other person and I would not have been able to tell, which I found disappointing. But maybe that was the point? Honestly, thinking about this feels like interpreting a painting instead of reading a book. It was an absolutely unique experience I highly recommend.