What’s Real?

I’m a Haven Kimmel fan. To me, her characters often carry an oddness that, when one thinks about it much, is not that different than many of our own family members. This book is different. Told through a person who may be schizophrenic or disassociated one doesn’t really know who is sympathetic and caring or who is dangerous. I ended up getting the sense that no one was truly dangerous. The narrative is so well put together in its disjointedness that it makes sense and doesn’t. Kimmel is a master of possibilities here. It isn’t an easy read, but it will grab the reader.

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Wonderful, complex read

This is a very compelling, complex, and interesting read. The point of view switch from 1st to 3rd to deliniate from Trace's narration and the narrator was brilliant, and the author's references to archetypal criticism compells me to go back and reread Jung and Hillman. I thoroughly enjoyed the writer's self narration. This book haunted me while listening as much as the protagonist's past haunts her.

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Not so Zippy

I love Haven Kimmel's writing and was excited to find one of her books that had escaped me. While the book was entertaining, I found the story hard to follow. At its conclusion many things came together, but it wasn't her typical style.

Don't judge Ms. Kimmel solely on this book as her others are far better!

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the work of a genius

Haven Kimmel is a literary genius and this novel may not be fully understood in one reading, or listening. But attempting to do so is infinitely rewarding and exciting.

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Not as good as her others

Didn't love this at all. Have thoroughly enjoyed 3 other books by Haven Kimmel but just couldn't get into this one.

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Beautifully Dark

I adore this book: It is intelligent, twisting, and beautifully written. I would go as far as to say it is one of my all-time favorites. I found it again after reading it in high school, and while at the time I was unable to grasp the full picture (you're following from the writings/perspective of a deeply traumatized college student with a seizure disorder that makes her hallucinate and lose gaps in her own memory), what I did remember stuck with me to the point that I dug it back up after 10 years. I've listened to it three times just this week, and the story becomes increasingly sharp and painfully vivid with each playthrough.
Are there answers to everything? No. There is supposed to be delineation and confusion because the story is told through Trace's eyes, a lot of it taking place in her own dreams, which are confusing by nature. Distortion is her reality!
I've seen a ton of complaints among the reviews about her train of thought dropping off at random: The majority of the times her train of thought veers, it's because she's encroaching on repressed memories that eventually make themselves known if you give the book proper time and attention.
The devil's in the details, both literallly and figuratively, and the "bomb drop" doesn't hit until the final chapter (and it is a DOOZY!).
Yes, this is a TERRIBLY dark book, and the subject matter/prose is definitely not for the impatient, or those looking for a traditional happy ending, but there is redemption to be found here. Haven's reading really helped weave the pieces into a tangible and heart-wrenching story of how abuse, abandonment, and mental illness shaped the reality of a brilliant mind and disfigured her concept of love into something forbidden, painful, and seemingly impossible to free herself of.

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Puzzling

I kept feeling like there was something good hidden in here, but alas it remained elusive. It was impossible to follow this prose and though I finished it, I have no idea what I just listened to. I am baffled.

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Disjointed Text, Awful Narration

The Book: the first sentence of this book starts out "I never had sex with my father but I would have, if he had agreed." I almost turned it off then, but decided to give it a legitimate listen. After about an hour and a half, I just couldn't continue. I found the plot extremely hard to follow and there didn't seem to be much of a point to the whole thing.

I recognize that the intent was to convey the fractured mental state of the main character, but there were many instances where the author would stop in the middle of a sentence and pick up with a completely different train of thought. It just made it very difficult to follow.


The Narration: This had to be the worst narration of a book I have ever experienced. The author took it upon herself to narrate the book. One might think that even add to the flavor of the story seeing as how the author should be more familiar than any hired voice with the subject matter, but every word felt forced, as though she was both reading from a script for the very first time and was only semi-literate. There was absolutely no flow or rhythm to the narration. It was very choppy, broken, and distracting. Please! Don't take my word on the delivery, listen to the available sample and judge for yourself.

I have never not finished an audio-book that I have started until now. Ultimately, it was just too painful to continue. The overall tone was very dark and the mood was completely depressing. I don't believe that even once, in the hour and a half that I invested, any character experienced even one happy or non-depressing thought. I couldn't justify finishing this book.

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5 people found this helpful