Reading this with The Brothers Karamazov was particular gruelling during our Yuletide season of cheer haha. I guess I wanted to stay grounded. Anyway, thematically, and at a meta context, though not a Maximalist work, since it’s less than 1/3 the size of Brothers—it still manages to hit similar themes and deploys some similar literary devices, and, in my opinion, is the better book in every evaluation of the craft. (Including, not being 1000 pages to do it).

Rumination on the ignorance and grotesque manner people are twisted by what they believe in, especially when aligned with social constructs. Faith, belief, whatever, all are put into the microscope of multiple perspectives and done so in a meaningful way.

Obviously, don’t read this if you’re feeling too down regarding humanity, this doesn’t have that much hope in it. And a content warning for harm to children applies. Maybe not during the holidays, a normal person would pick this up, is what I’m saying.