The Blind Assassin in Pick-a-Shelf

Nov 21, 2011 Susan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

Atwood is at her complicated best here. I debated long between 4 stars and 5, since for me it's a clear 4.5*.

People have shelved it both as mystery and as science fiction, in addition to the shelves I chose, and I can understand both choices. There's a story within a story within a story; and the last embedded level is a science fiction story called "The Blind Assassin." And if a mystery is defined by the fact that we're not exactly sure what happened, including who did what, until the very end, ...more

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May 29, 2011 Kira rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This was really slow to get going but I stuck with it hoping it would get better since there are a number of positive reviews for it. But it didn't happen. I found the pace of this throughout very slooooooow and there was just too much descriptive prose. I admit that I actually skimmed/skipped a large number of pages (something I NEVER do) just to get through it.

I also found the story itself really boring. I worked out the "twist" very early on and to be honest it wasn't that surprising nor ver ...more

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Mar 31, 2019 Marie (UK) rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019-reading-challenge

This book is a bit like pass the parcel, it is wrapped in many layers . As with most of Atwood's books there is a mastery in the writing. Each of the layers carry an element of mystery and the reader is beguiled into attempting to unravel it. It is not my favourite but certainly not the worst that i have read of this author's work. However it did fail to hold my interest for its entirety. The ending had both something i had expected and something I had simply not seen. I enjoyed it overall but i ...more

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