M’s Comments (group member since May 31, 2022)

M’s comments from the 2025 Reading Challenge group.

Pod wrote: "This is my first venture with Maggie O'Farrell. I started listening on Audible after losing my physical copy. I enjoyed the writing but found it hard to follow the story. I've bought another copy and finding much easier to follow."

Glad you could join us Pod :)
I just read about 50-ish pages and can see how this may be not be a easy read to listen to. I don't remember The Marriage Portrait being structured this way now that I think about it...
Nevertheless, even though I've just started, I trust O'Farrell and have a feeling these small mentions so far of how cruel (view spoiler)[Hamnet's grandparents are (I struggle at any mention of animal or child abuse) plus a little evil stepmother action is going to give me a good cry at some point, haha. (hide spoiler)]

Happy reading!

Aww that's too bad Dominique but thanks for joining us and giving it a go! May I ask if you were reading this on audio?

update to message 5: Sorry for the late notice, I need to opt out for next month! :( Thank you!

Thanks for joining me TerryJane :)

I read The Silent Companions last year and am looking forward to reading this one as well.
Have you read any other books from this author?

I plan to start the first weekend in October since my copy will be headed back to the library mid month.

Looking forward to reading this with you all!
I picked up The Marriage Portrait last year on a whim, went in blind and totally loved it.
I've wanted to read this every since.

Will this be anyone's first venture into Maggie O'Farrell's work?

Yo these dudes are the worst!
Finished this tonight and while I didn't love it as much as My Best Friend's Exorcism, I still had a good time.
I was a little taken aback at how gruesome this got and when she walks in (view spoiler)[and that monster is doing THAT to your daughter!!??! Patricia! You better murder that monster with your bare hands woman get it together!!.....
I think this is why I didn't love this. I needed Patricia to be better. (hide spoiler)]
But also I laughed out loud more than a few times so I still dug this.

I'm about 70% through and I miight finish this tonight - we'll see...
Spoilers up to Chapter 30 (view spoiler)[I'm frustrated with Patricia making dumb decisions after being pissed off at all the men in this town so I'm a little overall annoyed with this story so far. I'm ready for some vampire action dammit lol!
(hide spoiler)]

TerryJane wrote: "I have spent weeks avoiding the spoilers, and finally began reading it today. I'll open the comments only after I complete each part."

Glad to have you join us! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts :)

Suggesting Gallant by Victoria Schwab and The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell for October.
not open to other months cause they gotta go back to the library :)

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Gosh I love her work.

I don't know where the heck this month went but I FINALLY got into this one last night and blew thru a 100 pages before I realized it was 1am and I needed to stop, haha.
Needless to say, I'm loving it so far :)

BarbaraBrubru_gingertiger wrote: "I started last week end :), s I can join the discussion soon !"

Niice! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts :)

SarahKat wrote: "I have finished. This is probably one of the most well-written books I've read in recent memory. I think I came across more unfamiliar words in this book than I have in a long time too, but they we..."

*deep sigh* ...just finished....
(view spoiler)[I had similar feelings as I was nearing the end that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. I wanted to be wrong about Norton (even though I was never going to get over his behavior from his first trip to the island and what he did to it and it's inhabitants. I wanted to believe there was something good in him.
That last chapter took my breath away.

How is Ronald so accepting of the monstrous things this man has done?! I'm left just shaking my head and wondering HOW...WHY?!

What scares me about her writing is how distinctively real it feels. There are monsters among us. I've seen it. I'm sure a lot of us have. We all know how incredibly dark and sinister humans can be.

The dreamers (oh my poor dreamers) were mentioned in the footnotes of part 5 (#74). It's mentioned how Eve at that point was 299 years old and basically brain dead even though "her lung function, however, remains that of a woman a fraction of her estimated age."
My guess is they were eventually moved to a private "secret" facility and continued to be used a test subjects until there was no life left to measure.
(hide spoiler)]

Thank you for reading this with me! I'm going to go sit in a dark corner and think about life in silence for a while now... and maybe think about adopting a turtle.

I finished part 5 about an hour ago and have just been sitting in silence since. It's just all so heartbreaking.
I'm going to finish this book today, I think I've got about an hour or so of reading left but I can say already that while this hasn't been as emotionally traumatic as A Little Life, Yanagihara's writing is superb. I'm even more impressed by this author since this was her debut!

SarahKat wrote: "Just finished Part 4:"

(view spoiler)[The entire scene with the turtles death hurt me (I work in vet med) and exactly that! - the complete disrespect overall just really turned me off and I can't think of any way that his character can be redeemed for me. I was so disgusted by him.
I'm not sure how I feel about Esme...I go back and forth because I'm not sure I believe his perception of her. I just don't trust him haha. But on the other hand - I also believe what he's saying because he's so factual and seemingly honest in his account of how things are happening. (hide spoiler)]
I haven't had a chance yet to get into part 5 but I hope to this weekend :)

BarbaraBrubru_gingertiger wrote: "I would like to join this buddy read, I haven't read anything from this author yet :)"

Welcome BarbaraBrubru!

TerryJane wrote: "It will probably be a week or two before I start this one. I have three of her books on my TBR, but have read none."

Sounds good :)

Looking forward to hear your thoughts!

As I've gotten a little deeper into this read I feel the need to give a little disclaimer if you may be sensitive to graphic content/trigger warnings....this hits some big ones..
Trigger warnings (view spoiler)[
Animal abuse/death
Child abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)
Dementia
Sexual assault
Rape
Suicide
Violence
(hide spoiler)]

Haha, at least it's not a full zoom in shot of a face in anguish :)

I was relieved to get to part 3 and away from the lab work. I hope you enjoy The Dreamers! I did. I got sucked right in. I really like the atmosphere she creates.

I finished part 4 last night and it was rough -
(view spoiler)[I guess I forgot for a minute I was reading Yanagihara and wasn't fully prepared for how graphic she can get. I didn't know I was going to be so disgusted by Norton's character and I wonder - since we don't have a reliable narrator, how much worse could it have been? Are we missing details or other events? (hide spoiler)]

1. Science Fiction, grimdark (dark fantasy), horror
2. Yes
3. Yes

SarahKat wrote: "I haven't read anything by this author yet. I honestly cannot stand the cover of A Little Life (I don't like photographs of people on books), so I haven't even looked into it more to see if I'm int..."

Haha that's totally understandable, it's a terrible cover :)
I will say though if you get emotionally attached to characters, it's devastating and I would not recommend it. Buuutt it's some of the most beautiful writing I've read in the last 10 years so I didn't regret reading it at all.

Sweet!
I had started this one weeks ago and put it on pause in anticipation of the buddy read so I'm excited to jump back in :)
I've got a long holiday weekend so I'll get into this one come Fri/Sat.

Have you read any other books from this author?
I read A Little Life last year and still think about!