Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Marokánka by Christine Mangan

3 reviews

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Considering I've never read any psychological thrillers like the ones mentioned in other reviews before, I somehow found this book to be kind of predictable and okay at best. I did find myself turning the page just to see what happened next, and although sometimes I was satisfied by what I read nothing felt particularly extraordinary to me.

What I liked:
  • For all of its flaws, the writing is easy to read and the author has a good sense of the characters' individual voices.
  • The author is good at giving Tangier a sense of place even if you haven't been there. Though it might be a little cliché, I also enjoyed the talk about the country's tombs and how it went through many different names depending on who had recently conquered it.

What I didn't like:
  • There were long stretches where it didn't feel like anything was happening in the present day of the novel. I understand Alice is a 50's housewife and lacks the agency a lot of modern day women do for a reason, but the flashbacks to Bennington were more interesting than the novel's present day I couldn't help but wonder if the author intended it to be set at Bennington originally, only to change the setting to make it seem more unique.
  • The characters stick to the roles and clichés they were written for and don't have much going for them outside of it. This is especially annoying with
    Lucy, as she follows the psycho lesbian trope to a tee because she grew up poor and had an absent mother. Groundbreaking. The idea that Alice was supposed to be an equally unreliable narrator as well also fell short for me.
  • Although I said the author is good at making Tangier come to life, there is one thing that felt like wasted potential to me. There was talk of violent revolutions happening so that Morocco could gain its independence which felt like it was included more to say "do not enjoy this popular holiday destination!" rather than exploring how the city is a product of colonisation that white people enjoy at the expense of the people they've colonialised.
  • Lucy's scheming was almost comical at times, especially with how everything seemed to go off without a hitch. The novel relies a lot on dramatic irony over foreshadowing, so we know how Lucy's schemes are going to affect Alice, but even when Alice starts to realise the extent of Lucy's scheming at best she stamps her feet and tells Lucy to go away. Again, understandable considering the time period, but it doesn't make it all that compelling to read.
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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I liked the idea of the storyline; I just don’t think it came across right. I liked the mystery of it and how the woman was the bad guy rather than the husband as with most historical fiction. Most historical fictions have the whole “women should be in the kitchen and all of their husbands are abusing them” and I'm glad it wasn’t like that for once. I liked the husband in this book, even though we knew he would end up dying. 

One of the issues I had with this book is I hated the main characters, both Alice and Lucy were unbearable. They were both blended into one character, so even though there was two points of view, it just felt like one point of view but with a character that has bipolar or something. I wanted to smack Alice and Lucy. I wanted to smack Alice for not being smarter after it happened once before. I wanted to smack Lucy for being a selfish cow and not being a girl’s girl. The flip flopping between the past and the present gave me a headache. I couldn’t keep track. I would have liked a happy ending with Lucy being dead or getting some form of justice and being in prison but instead I'm left with more questions than answers and for a book that I didn’t like, I don’t like having questions with no answers. 

It felt like Saltburn on crack, expect I understood Saltburn, I didn’t enjoy it, but I understood it. This book was just chaos. 
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rosie_pow's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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