Gorgeous at the sentence level but a plot that's very hard to follow...
This is a book I really wanted to love and there were parts of it that I really, really did. A house full of monsters who speak with teeth and claw, who want fiercely and take and protect and grin with all their teeth. A lonely girl who doesn't fit in, who feels both too monstrous and not monstrous enough, who just wants to find stable ground. And oh man the writing at the sentence level... There were phrases that could make you bleed. There were a few that literally raised goosebumps on my arms.
But alas, I spent the entire book confused. I felt like I walked into the wrong house where a party was going on: everyone knows each other and the rules except me. I was so wrong-footed (I think in part because Eleanor didn't seem to remember a lot of things? Which was weird? Like... Why did she have amnesia?) that I spent the whole book grasping for something to ground me. I couldn't get a handle on the time period (50s or 60s? Maybe?), I have no idea how old Eleanor was (she'd been gone for 8 years but was she 16? 18?), I feel like I was left with so many questions (namely about Eleanor's mom, honestly. She was a total mystery to me).
But damn if the images and the writing weren't stellar in pieces. Szabo is going to be an author to watch and I can't wait to see where they take us next.
But alas, I spent the entire book confused. I felt like I walked into the wrong house where a party was going on: everyone knows each other and the rules except me. I was so wrong-footed (I think in part because Eleanor didn't seem to remember a lot of things? Which was weird? Like... Why did she have amnesia?) that I spent the whole book grasping for something to ground me. I couldn't get a handle on the time period (50s or 60s? Maybe?), I have no idea how old Eleanor was (she'd been gone for 8 years but was she 16? 18?), I feel like I was left with so many questions (namely about Eleanor's mom, honestly. She was a total mystery to me).
But damn if the images and the writing weren't stellar in pieces. Szabo is going to be an author to watch and I can't wait to see where they take us next.