The books I finished you may have heard of if you are avid readers; they are very popular now and have been littered across booktok. My first review will be for ‘Strange Houses’ which I gave 5/5 stars (this is a very rare rating for me)! In a nutshell, it is a crime, mystery fiction book based on the floorplans of 2 houses which leads to an unravelling of events. This is all the description I am going to provide as I urge you to read this book. It was gripping from start to finish and so enticing that I finished it under 24 hours. I bought it in London and after my hour train journey home, I was already over half-way. It does only consist of about 200 pages but in my opinion, it doesn’t need to be any longer. I hate it when an author stretches out a book to the point where you become disinterested in it. Uketsu illustrates the story and does not make it any longer than it needs to be. Following a script-style of writing, I found that as a reader I was consistently engaged and eager to turn the page. The literature was not challenging and the story flowed elegantly. My only criticism of this piece is how the end is not conclusive and I like to finish a book feeling satisfied yet, this feature ensured that the book was persistent in my mind for days after as I continued to debunk the story and used my own imagination to wonder what could have followed.
Intermezzo has a mixture of opinions I find when I have spoken to people about it. I am not usually a Sally Rooney fan, her ways of writing often confuse me, and I dislike the lack of speech marks within her texts. Perhaps there is something about her writing style that is captivating and I am yet to understand it but, for me, I found it a very slow read. The storyline follows 2 brothers experiencing grief from the death of their dad and navigating relationships. I think the storyline was interesting, but I did not finish it feeling fulfilled. The focus on the love interests brought me away from getting to know the characters in a deeper sense because most of the storyline was navigated around the brother’s relationships and problems were revolved around them. One point of view may see the women in the brother’s life as some sort of emotional post which they rely on. It is a complex book and there are lots of layers to it so perhaps I would benefit from a second read. Nonetheless, I did finish it and would rate it a 3 out of 5.