fruitea's reviews
74 reviews

God awful. This woman ruined contemporary poetry and got away with it. Fake deep inspirational quotes written in all lowercase and spaced out stylistically does not make it poetry. Where is the rhythm, the rhyme? When you read a poem out loud, you hear the structural features the writer wants you to. This has nothing. My dog could write better "poetry".

An interesting concept. I picked this one up because it's gay and I happened to be looking for gay retellings of fairy tales. The prose is a bit straightforward which made it a very quick read. I thought the dichotomy between people viewing Alyce as an evil freak of nature while coveting her ability to concoct poisons and the like was interesting - people pretending to be disgusted by something that they secretly indulge in. 

I still hate this book, and I still hate Briony. Even after six years

(it's really been that long? kill me now)

, I cannot forget the resentment I hold for that fictional thirteen year-old. I suppose that's the point and the book is about how she tries to atone the rest of her life. HOWEVER, she does everything except stand up and tell everyone that she lied. So she begins the book as a stupid, naive, foolish coward, and ends the book exactly the same, just as a seventy-seven year old. 

She's such an unlikeable and annoying character. Maybe we're supposed to empathise with her actions, but I do not. She's an idiot who let her cousin marry her rapist because she was too afraid to admit that she lied. At any point, she could have spoken up about it, but as soon as Lola married Paul, it became impossible for him to be held responsible in the eyes of the law. The only vindicating part is that she is not forgiven by Cecilia or Robert. The only redeeming factor is the film adaptation because of Keira Knightley's green dress.