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colorfulleo92's review
2.0
I got quite far into the novel but I could not finish it. I've enjoyed Richard Adams works before but this one felt more like a weird dream, made little sense and I had problems taking something significant out of it. I thought it was going to be more romantic and erotic/sensual kind of story but it made no sense. There where parts of this that really put me out of the story and what made me take the book down for good was a "sex" scene that seemed far from consensual but was brushed away far to lightly for my liking. I couldn't feel a connection between the couple and I'm not quite sure what I actually read to be honest and I really tried to get into it. Wouldn't recommend this book as the first one to pick up by Richard Adams
bookishbeccahale's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage and Sexual content
Minor: Child death
menfrommarrs's review against another edition
5.0
Just what everyone wishes for in a relationship and at the Jumble Sale. Uuuh, SURPRISE!
katyl's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very dense, pleasurable read with menace cleverly positioned just out of sight until the denouement. I have just reread it because I recalled enjoying it hugely as a young person, and although I did not recall the plot I had retained the impression of it giving that fist in a velvet glove punch. The reread was just as rewarding. The supernatural elements are kept sufficiently in check as not to spoil what could otherwise be a realistic tale, and, as in The Turn of the Screw, the reader is left to wonder what elements are in the narrator's imagination only. The narrator is both believable as a character and clearly unreliable as a story-teller but to say more would be potentially to spoil the joy of the read for others.
lvv205's review against another edition
2.0
this book is really slow moving. i figured out what was gone pretty early so it just wasn't that interesting.
thecommonswings's review
3.0
Technically probably a 3.5? It’s very good but overlong and sometimes Adams feels like he wants to milk his research for everything it’s got. And there’s also a nagging sense of Karin being a literary equivalent of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl at heart and however much Adams tries to make her work fully, there’s still a nagging sense of her not really being fully believable or quite why she suddenly falls in love with Alan. But the best bits are incredible and strange and beautiful and Adams is a gorgeous prose writer
I also have a sneaky suspicion that Jonathan Carroll read this early on in his career and thought “this is very good but I can do it better”. And truly it is and truly he did
I also have a sneaky suspicion that Jonathan Carroll read this early on in his career and thought “this is very good but I can do it better”. And truly it is and truly he did
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
What a haunting book. Richard Adams has a supreme gift of language that raises everything he does to the level of the best Greek tragedies.
I read a battered paperback copy of this several years ago in a single weekend, each dip into it longer than the one before, until it became impossible for me to set it down - I had to follow it through to the end.
'The Girl in a Swing' does not reach a place in my head and heart like 'Watership Down', but it proves to me the universality of Adams' gift, that he can play with any genre, any character, and create something beautiful and memorable.
I read a battered paperback copy of this several years ago in a single weekend, each dip into it longer than the one before, until it became impossible for me to set it down - I had to follow it through to the end.
'The Girl in a Swing' does not reach a place in my head and heart like 'Watership Down', but it proves to me the universality of Adams' gift, that he can play with any genre, any character, and create something beautiful and memorable.
windsinger's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0