Tier Ranking Every Book I've Given 5 Stars Since 2019
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- čas přidán 15. 04. 2024
- Tier Ranking Every Book I've Given 5 Stars Since 2019!
I don't tend to star rate on CZcams anymore, but I do on Storygraph for my stats, and this is me tier ranking all of my five star books (no spoilers, purely vibes). i hope you enjoy!
check out the original video here: • Tier Ranking My 5 Star...
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I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Feel better, Roisin.
Thank you
You don't appear to feel very well, and, in fact, I feel similarly poorly many days, but I'm old. Still, here you are pitching away, providing opinions and good content.
I don't believe I have read any of the books you list, but enjoy hearing all the recaps. Thanks, as always for what you provide.
I have to say, I had a very different impression of Our Wives Under The Sea (but my perspective might be skewed because I've been reading it for professional reasons, and if you spend a few months hyper-focusing on every word, then things which seem innocuous in normal reading start to really grate).
[EDIT: Oh dear, this ended up being a whole long rant, I do apologise and I don't expect anyone to go through it... It's just because I've literally finished working on it today, so I probably need to unload a bit, haha. TLDR: skip to the last 2 paragraphs! :-D ]
I think it should have been a short story and then it would have been stunning. As a novel... it doesn't work for me at all. In terms of its story and scope, it doesn't move past what you'd expect in a short form: a simple idea for the plot with elements that don't require explanation - almost nothing happens here and even when the main character is offered some sort of explanation on a platter, she says: 'I know I should care about it, but I DON'T'. Armfield is literally finding excuses for why both main characters are not asking questions that you'd reasonably expect them to ask. She's going out of her way to tell us that she knows we're wondering about those things, but we shouldn't have a problem with the lack of explanation, because she's telling us that she knows we'd like to know. It feels like she couldn't be bothered to flesh out the story to the level of a novel).
Instead, she inflates it with random details that are supposed to make us fall in love with the characters and their relationship, but they don't really tell me much; I never get to experience Leah and Miri together beyond two-sentence remembered vignettes like "the way she took my hand, the way I told her that one thing that night'. It's like trying to know someone as a person from looking at a few snapshots. It didn't encourage me to care about them (especially Miri), because I had a sense that they couldn't be bothered to tell me about themselves as people.
And the style (while there are a lot of beautiful passages) at some point was ruined for me by being padded with so many unnecessary words. If you took out the overused stylistic repetitions, the book would have been 1/3 shorter (and imo all the better for it). I couldn't stop myself from thinking that Armfield was overly conscious of being paid by the word (all that fluff, like the constant: 'she [insert a verb], IN THAT WAY THAT SHE HAD', all those unnecessary qualifiers: 'I thought, in a FAIRLY distant way, about...').
And to top it all - I couldn't even really empathise with Miri's gradual loss, because it happened in such unusual circumstances that I was more interested in finding out what happened. I think that, as a rumination on loss, it would hit much harder if Leah had an actual illness that people have in reality, like Alzheimer's. As it is, I felt like Miri should be thinking: 'What tf is going on and why?!' The uniqueness of their circumstances makes her experience a bit alien and harder to emphasise with. Grief (I think) is so difficult partly because it's so commonplace that people around you just don't have the energy to keep grieving with you, so you feel all alone and stuck in it, while the world keeps going on (this is something even Miri observes in the book). But if someone told me a story like Leah's, you bet I'd remember it and I'd be checking up on Miri all the time.
To sum up: I think the idea was great and Armfield is clearly a skilled writer. It's just that she bit more than she could chew in choosing to write a novel instead of a short story, and she wasn't interested in fleshing it out properly.
But, of course, that's just my personal opinion (and, like I said, it may not be completely just because of the way I had to interact with the book. Maybe I'll pick it up in a few years and have a very different reaction). Clearly, many people loved the book just as it is, and that's absolutely fine with me, we can't all expect to love the same things :-)
Hope you feel better soon!
I can see why you would have that reaction, especially if you are more used to picking up more plotty books, or books that look for answers. For me the not knowing was part of the allegory of it all. It can be read as an allegory of illness, but also of those times when someone changes and there is no explanation for it, like depression or even as simple as a breakup. The idea of the ship for me was that the one who went into the sea (i'm not good with character names) had in a way been to hell. It reminded me of journeys into the underworld that are common in greek literature. It is a story that is exploring an emotion, and so plot and explanation is secondary or even unnecessary, and maybe for you that works better in short form. I felt the writing and its repetitiveness called to mind the endless washing of the sea on the shore, the gradual erosion of this life and this relationship by the unstoppable force that cannot be explained. It can also be a metaphor for miscommunication and separating oneself off from a partner and the world after a trauma. The one who went away became strange and unknowable, and after so long of no answers (she does spend months trying to find an explanation before giving up) she is broken and no longer truly interested because would an answer actually change anything?
I prefer a book that builds a place i can believe and fills it with ideas and feelings than a book that just strives for neat tie ups.
Sorry you’re in pain Roisin. Hope you’re feeling better. I’ve read 12 on your list. Have you had any 5 stars this year so far?
I tend to go back and rate about 6 months into the year, so no ratings as of yet