Tori’s Comments (group member since Sep 02, 2024)

Tori’s comments from the Books and Sh!t group.

I really didn’t love this book… had really high hopes as I loved A Fragile Enchantment but this just felt weak and lazy to me. The romance felt incredibly forced - I hate you, I hate you, I hate you - oh but actually you’re the love of my life and how can I live without you? Author clearly took inspiration from WWI (King Wilhelm) and WWII (Lorelai’s community based on the ghettos?). Didn’t feel like the plot line was incredibly strong either
2 ⭐️
‘One day, you will grow tired of this thing you’ve made yourself into. One day, all there will be to content you is ghosts’

Although this is a murder mystery it very much felt like a ‘slice of life’ to me. Very philosophical but I feel like the emphasis was was much more heavily focused on the message of respecting nature and animals, as opposed to the plot; and ultimately the plot suffered for it. While I absolutely agree with the message, I think there could have been a better balance between the message of the books and the plot of the book

3⭐️
‘What sort of a world is this, where killing and pain are the norm? What on earth is wrong with us?’

Do you have a rating and a favourite quote?

4 ⭐️
I really liked this one! It’s wasn’t an ‘on the edge of my seat’ kind of books but I was really emotionally invested in it. I think it was really interesting to document the lives of women across a century, and the way they are expected to live in a man’s world, including all the compromises and risks to themselves and their bodies they are expected to make for the sake of the men around them. I think the book draws a very interesting parallel between the lack of domestic and reproductive rights women had back then, and how although women have been fighting, we seem to now be going backwards. Raises the question whether as women we’ll ever achieve ‘freedom’ and ‘equity’ while it’s still so easy for men to take our rights away from us.
My quote: ‘to think that when we came to this idyllic farm with my mother and aunts we dubbed it exile with a capital E. It wasn’t our exile, it was our salvation’.
There were loads of good quotes though, some other contenders for me:
‘Exert some independence; you’re not a little girl. You can’t let anyone else decide things for you. You have to take care of yourself in this world.’
‘Remembering is my curse’
‘She asked why he hadn’t had a vasectomy if he didn’t want to bring any more children into the world… at that time it was considered a punishment for criminals and an affront to masculinity. The threat to my life was of a minor importance.’
‘Why would you want a tragic life, Violeta?’
‘It start with abuse and ends with murder!’
‘Come back to haunt us señora, and tell us what it’s like to be dead’
After a century, time is now slipping through my fingers. Where did those hundred years go?’

I actually didn’t see the plot twist coming and I really feel like I should have?

Can’t wait🤩