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What Members Thought

Penny
Sep 30, 2016 rated it really liked it
This so beautiful, and grim, and dark.
I loved this book, but I don't think I could read this one again.
...more
Meera
May 03, 2020 rated it really liked it
This is my third book by this author and now I think I will just pick up her newest without thinking about it. I have owned this for a while but haven’t picked it up because of the subject matter. But somehow this author makes it easy to read about difficult and complex people and topics with her beautiful and haunting prose. For me, I think the poetic and magical language gives some needed distance from the ugly and brutal things she brings up just like how the narrator does the same with his i ...more
Penny
Nov 20, 2019 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 2019
This was a reread, and I enjoyed it even more the second time around. I took time to savour it, and really think about the novel. That death row in an old and crumbling prison could be an enchanted place is hard to fathom, but somehow it can be. There's an element of magical realism, or perhaps just plain delusional fantasies, but they work. At the centre of this novel, is 'the lady' who is never given any other name, who tries to save men from execution, but meets her match in York, who wants t ...more
Wendy
Nov 03, 2017 marked it as abandoned
DNF at 15%. Lots of rave reviews but I can already tell that this is not for me. The concept attracted me and the prose is well-wrought, but I’m not feeling grounded in the world or drawn in by the characters.
Charlotte Burt
May 02, 2021 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Well that was Dark! But so good. I had to read it slowly as it is too harrowing to be read fast. This is magical realism but only seen through the eyes of a madman, but a madman with a wonderful imagination.
Martha
Aug 15, 2014 rated it it was amazing
Corie
Aug 25, 2014 marked it as to-read
Megan
Sep 01, 2014 marked it as to-read
Sally
Sep 21, 2014 rated it it was amazing
Ashley Dreyer
Nov 10, 2014 marked it as to-read
Beth F
Dec 19, 2014 marked it as to-read
Meg
Jan 05, 2015 marked it as to-read
Lauren
Jan 23, 2015 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Cherie Lampley
Mar 07, 2015 marked it as to-read
Shelves: tbr
Heather
May 27, 2015 marked it as to-read
Meckenzie
Oct 01, 2015 marked it as to-read
Shauna
Nov 18, 2015 marked it as to-read
MichelleCH
Sep 06, 2016 marked it as to-read
Colleen Scidmore
Feb 05, 2017 marked it as to-read
Shelves: tbd
Susan
May 09, 2017 marked it as to-read
Katt Hansen
Aug 11, 2017 marked it as to-read
Holli
Aug 15, 2017 marked it as to-read
Marissa
Aug 18, 2017 marked it as to-read
Alan
Oct 31, 2017 marked it as to-read
Robin
Aug 08, 2018 marked it as to-read
Mary Anne
Oct 19, 2018 rated it really liked it
Sally
Nov 06, 2019 marked it as to-read
Jen Ciccotto
Apr 16, 2022 marked it as to-read