In June I
read a few books which were incredibly disappointing and since I don’t have
enough to say about them to write a full review I thought this post to be a
good idea to tell you what went wrong with these stories in a simple yet
‘straight to the point’ way.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Well written and the themes it touches are
quite heavy which is something I enjoy but I guess I wasn’t in the right
mindset to fully appreciate the story. It left me with so many questions and
although I knew beforehand that that was the author intention, I still found it
incredibly frustrating. Besides my frustration, the level of disconnection I felt towards the story was high - the story was told from 3 different points of view but sadly neither of those was from the girl who became vegetarian and frankly, I would have rather known what was going within her mind.
The Wilds by Julia Elliott. Bizarre at hell. This short story collection
contains 11 stories. Of those I liked 3, I DNFed 5 (4 of those in a row) and
the remaining 3 were simply okay. I guess the whole collection went over my
head. There is nothing much to say about this because I don’t even know where
to begin with. Still, Elliott knows her way with words for sure.
Mathilda by Mary Shelley. I read Frankenstein last year and absolutely
adored it so when I saw this novella on my local bookshop I had to get it. A
father-daughter incest theme? Yes please. However, I didn’t exactly get that
from the full story; Mathilda turned
to be something completely different. It’s depressing, slow, gloomy and
emotional. The perfect romantic story; maybe a bit too much for my taste.
Needless to
say, not because these weren’t my cup of tea it means you won’t be able to enjoy
them. The Vegetarian is well loved
everywhere and I’m here feeling like the odd one out. The same goes for The Wilds and Mathilda. As always, if you think these are stories you might
enjoy, give them a chance.