ilnook
just a funky lil editor who has no time to read but manuscripts
2612 points
ilnook commented...
3h
yeah, why not. it surprised me, in a good way. i liked that it wasn’t like an isekai-ish trope
i was super skeptical about this novel. i knew a lot of people who had been praising this novel, and recommending it to me. but, well, if you’ve seen my rating…
yesteryear felt like an exploration into religious psychosis. correct me if i’m wrong, but there were also discussions about postnatal depression? apologies, i’m not well-versed in those topics.
natalie, as a main character, showed an insane obsession with god, as an anchor and guide to her life. it actually reminded me of a social media post back then that was basically a girl who was saying the boyfriend wasn’t her type but she trusted god (original post was taken down but a summary is here: tiktok).
was digressing a bit there, but back to my review, natalie showed characteristics of religious-bragging (think humble-bragging but make it about religion). everything has been set on path by god, god made caleb cheat on shannon, god made clementine rebellious, you get my point.
and frankly speaking, i hated it so much. it was unbearable at that point. but when the switch flipped for the first time (aka natalie having one of her episodes for her first time), that’s when i became super invested in the novel. that’s when the facade and masks so carefully constructed came crashing down, and i enjoyed it.
any further points i make might spoil the novel, but to close out my review. this was a book i thought was going to be overhyped, but i was mistaken.
The Employees
Olga Ravn
i am confusion
i was super skeptical about this novel. i knew a lot of people who had been praising this novel, and recommending it to me. but, well, if you’ve seen my rating…
yesteryear felt like an exploration into religious psychosis. correct me if i’m wrong, but there were also discussions about postnatal depression? apologies, i’m not well-versed in those topics.
natalie, as a main character, showed an insane obsession with god, as an anchor and guide to her life. it actually reminded me of a social media post back then that was basically a girl who was saying the boyfriend wasn’t her type but she trusted god (original post was taken down but a summary is here: tiktok).
was digressing a bit there, but back to my review, natalie showed characteristics of religious-bragging (think humble-bragging but make it about religion). everything has been set on path by god, god made caleb cheat on shannon, god made clementine rebellious, you get my point.
and frankly speaking, i hated it so much. it was unbearable at that point. but when the switch flipped for the first time (aka natalie having one of her episodes for her first time), that’s when i became super invested in the novel. that’s when the facade and masks so carefully constructed came crashing down, and i enjoyed it.
any further points i make might spoil the novel, but to close out my review. this was a book i thought was going to be overhyped, but i was mistaken.
ilnook finished a book
1d
Yesteryear
Caro Claire Burke
A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive. Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.
ilnook started reading...
2d
Beautyland
Marie-Helene Bertino
From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth. At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone? Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.
how does one become a poet? is becoming a poet something done consciously, or a label placed upon oneself?
some reflections can be found in this tale, beginning with how a young boy’s life was uprooted from his grandfather’s betrayal, to having a turbulent 20-30s, to finally finding his roots in his later part of life.
of course, the book’s titled “The Poet”, so one would assume that it was always poetry from the get-go. but it wasn’t, his first poem was for an entrance exam. and from then on, it was an evolution of writing styles, from abstract to decadent to spiritual.
an interesting book to read, but does not have the lingering emotion i expect to have.
ilnook finished a book
3d
The Poet
Yi Mun-Yol
The life of a poet becomes a parable of hope in Yi Mun-yol’s searching novella of art, status and selfhood. With their family condemned as traitors, two young brothers are sent away in disguise to save their lives. One grows up by his wits, accepting what has been lost. The other is set on a different path, shaped by a determination to restore the family’s place in the world. As he wanders in search of recognition as a poet, ambition and survival begin to pull him in opposing directions.
ilnook started reading...
1w
The Poet
Yi Mun-Yol
The life of a poet becomes a parable of hope in Yi Mun-yol’s searching novella of art, status and selfhood. With their family condemned as traitors, two young brothers are sent away in disguise to save their lives. One grows up by his wits, accepting what has been lost. The other is set on a different path, shaped by a determination to restore the family’s place in the world. As he wanders in search of recognition as a poet, ambition and survival begin to pull him in opposing directions.
ilnook TBR'd a book
1w
The Poet
Yi Mun-Yol
The life of a poet becomes a parable of hope in Yi Mun-yol’s searching novella of art, status and selfhood. With their family condemned as traitors, two young brothers are sent away in disguise to save their lives. One grows up by his wits, accepting what has been lost. The other is set on a different path, shaped by a determination to restore the family’s place in the world. As he wanders in search of recognition as a poet, ambition and survival begin to pull him in opposing directions.
ilnook is interested in reading...
1w
And the River Drags Her Down
Jihyun Yun
She has always known the rules – never resurrect anything larger than the palm of her hand, but that was before her sister died. A chilling, compulsive exploration of sisterhood, loss, and revenge. When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the world. She becomes restless and hungry . . . Driven by an insatiable desire to finish what she started in life, to unravel the truth that crushed her family so many years ago, Mirae is out for revenge. When their town is engulfed by increasingly destructive rain and a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew.
so i’d give this book closer to 3.8🌟 okay, honest review time!
“Helen of Nowhere” excels in its premise & summary. a (quite common) disgraced male professor seeks escapism, but instead of women, he goes for… a farmhouse? there, he meets up with a real estate agent who is also a friend of the farmhouse’s owner. dialogue ensues, and, of course, (spoilers) he does get his ideal of escapism in the end.
what was initially eye-catching was how this book played out like a script. thoughts were non-italicised, verbiage was italicised, or vice-versa. actions were standalone sentences, things like that. but if you remove style, does it still retain its essence?
i’d say it loses a bit of its magic. why? the book has three characters (four, if you consider the wife a part of the cast). the “man” is absolutely annoying with his high-brow, humble bragging demeanour; the “woman” is a bit too friendly, with her very questionable quips, and weird medium abilities; “helen” is muted, voiced imaginatively in the “man”s headspace but does have a very strong personality; the “wife” fell for the tricks of the “man”, trying to rebuild her life while struggling in society.
these characters are too inconsistent in their characterisations. where did the “woman” go after her chapter? what happened to “helen”? why was the “wife” needed for its finale? how do you interpret the “man” becoming the dog of the “wife”? the questions are hypothetical, with no answer in sight, which made me close the book, at its end, with a “?” in my head.
it’s a good book, to restate my opinion. it just suffers a little because it wasn’t able to fully tie up loose ends. or at least snip those ends cleanly.
i don’t think it’ll be shortlisted, but let’s see!
ilnook finished a book
1w
Helen of Nowhere
Makenna Goodman
From the “brilliantly complex” (Jenny Offill) author of The Shame comes an electrifying dive into one man’s fractured psyche as he searches for a new life. Taking place over the course of one day, Helen of Nowhere introduces an intimate cast: an unnamed man at the end of both his career and marriage, a young realtor showing him an idyllic house in the countryside, and Helen, the mystifying former owner whose spectral presence seems to imbue the house’s every grain of wood. Through stories of the remarkable woman, the man is presented with an alternate way of life. But, as evening fades into black, the specifics of how to live it become more than what he bargained for. Philosophically adventurous, strange, and fascinating, Helen of Nowhere examines the structures that form our identity, staring the reader down to ask the haunting question: What is the cost of true happiness?
