So, this was a DNF book for me. I gave it a good try, though.
I found the odd punctuation usage in the book refreshing, though I don’t think it helped its story. It was jarring on the eye, but original and not something I had seen before. There were also too many perspectives flipping back and forth in this book. I still can’t tell you if it had any structure to frame it. It just seemed to switch whenever it felt like it, making it hard to want to pay attention to.
Koja definitely has an identifiable style, you could say.
If you’re into historical settings, I can see how this might be interesting to you. Otherwise, just watch the Hulu TV show Harlots or something.
The puppet aspect is introduced early on, and was a good way to introduce them (someone thinks they killed someone…only to discover that no, the person raping a woman isn’t a dwarf at all…yeah, weird). But there just wasn’t enough puppets, really. I wasn’t really sure what the point of this novel was, and without a message, I just gave up.
Here’s a really funny review of this book I think you should check out:
Please enjoy the second installment in the new series, Stefon on Literature. Take it away, Stefon!
It’s the 1870s, and Brussells’ hottest brothel is Under the Poppy. Club owners Decca and Rupert have though of everything: opium-addicted whores on swings, rent boys in costume, mute piano players, unrequited gay love, horny Gepettos…
I’m sorry, Stefon, horny Gepettos?
Another review I agree with:
What I did read of it was rich, detailed, slipping in and out of the minds of various characters. It’s atmospheric, wonderfully so — but to me it felt all atmosphere and no substance, and very little truly happening. I wanted to love Istvan and Rupert, but felt shut out by them — I identified perhaps the most with Decca, in that respect! — and didn’t feel caught up in their world, at all. And it’s not as though Decca is easy to love. The easiest ways in seem to be Lucy and Jonathan, but there isn’t much of the latter…
The narration doesn’t help: it isn’t easy to read, the style, not quite conventional. It takes a while to pick up the signifiers, what is flashback and what is real, and sometimes what exactly is being said, and by whom. Parts of it are third person (omniscient?) and parts are first person, which gives it all sorts of different flavours, but… still. I don’t feel closer to any one character, through that.
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