This is a story of love, loss, grief and war. It's not that it's bad. It's more that in a sea of stories of this vein, it doesn't stand out.

The most unique thing about the story is that Shafak uses an omniscient fig tree to join different narratives and time jumps. I was a little thrown by the trees frequent 'im a tree but I'm in love with the grieving father who cares for me' comments as that could have gone down any odd route. Finding out that

his wife's spirit, energy? had entered the tree on her death

made it a little easier to chew.

Furthermore, each time we meet the fig tree, she either narrates or gives us a word splurge on some slight or not at all related subject. The narration worked wonderfully but the word splurges sections quickly felt out of place, like they were lifted from a different book all together.

The characters felt underdeveloped and those I cared for were forgotten in the story. I can see why people like this book in that stories of lives and loss in war are a classic for a reason. If you've not read many in this sub-genre and it appeals to you, I'm sure you'd love this. For me, there's so many stories like this that I've loved and this one just didn't hit anywhere close.

In short, the characters were hard to root for, the pace slow and the story a little fractured.

I've read some of Eliza Clarks other books and enjoyed them but this one left me feeling icky. I don't listen to true crime podcasts so maybe that's why I didn't get the enjoyment from the story that others seem to have.

This said, it's well written with Clark's usual spot-on small British town dynamics. You can see the authors expenience with Tumblr, fanfiction and Sims mods a mile off. 😂

For anyone else confused about what everyone's meaning about the end reveal, I didn't think there was one and had to Google what people were talking about. It refers to

the idea that the fictional author has exaggerated things and made up some of the story

. I didn't see this as a twist in the slightest because

it literally says he's done that on the first page and that the book was withdrawn originally because of it

! 😅

I loved this immensely. This is the kind of book that makes you start looking for others to read immediately by the same author.

It shares love and hope in a way that is miles above most stories. About the denial of the things we know will bring us joy, it's heartbreaking and heartwarming in all the best ways. This said, the tension almost killed me and I'm so glad that the characters

got a happy ending.

I wish more male leads were like Wyn. Everyone needs someone like him in their lives.

Part of me wanted to read it again the moment I finished it and I had to hold back. I'd recommend this immensely. It's a book that I know I'll come back to again and again.

This book had me hooked and I'm not going to lie, I really didn't think it would.

It's solid good thriller book fun. Carter Wilson does a great job at making their main character relatable even though she's not necessarily likeable. The ending twist of is it really him or not was obvious and parts of it dragged (like the days before the second live stream).

There is an element of things being mentioned quite obviously directly before a mysterious thing happens that was a little annoying. Think 'oh, will the cat get out through the large dog door?' directly before 'how on earth did someone get in the house!?' but I suppose a lot of stories aren't very streamlined with this.

But those video links. 🤦 They really didn't add anything and if anything, they made my experience a little worse as I was left wondering if the acting was bad or if it was good acting pretending to be a bad actor for the plot! 😂

A super depressing look at British politics from an insider. It's even more depressing knowing that this is pre Brexit fall out and COVID.

It's definitely a book I'd recommend for giving a good view of the realities of British politics. I think if you're trying to make changes, even on an individual non-MP level, you need a good understanding of the reality of the government red tape.

The only problem is that Rory Stewart largely portrays himself as a good guy just trying to do the good thing. Whilst I don't know him to know either way, parts of the book made me very skeptical as to whether he was slightly elevating the good he intended/did.

I read this without any footnotes explaining the text and whilst I'm 100% this would have improved the text for me (allowing me to understand more of the subtext), I like it without it. I don't buy into the whole levels of hell stuff but couldn't help but feel that the narrator, as someone visiting hell who is able to leave afterwards, isn't the best example of religious piety? He basically wanders round hell being judgey as can be, calling out all of the authors contemporaries (friends or otherwise) as horrible people. Maybe that's part of the subtext, I'd don't know.

It's a classic for sure; it's easy to see why it's still being taught in schools. It's gorey and silly but also rather beautiful with it's value as a work of poetic literature is clear

You can understand why people can be intimidated by Dante's Divine Comedy with it's translated ancient 'current events' narrative and it being a three book text. This said, despite its references often being dated, it was an easy read and definitely not something to avoid.

Reading it as a solid work of fiction it's ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me. Maybe it'd be higher if I read more of the background/context, maybe not.