It’s been awhile since we picked up a book. We wanted something exciting, scandalous . . . something “unputdownable.” And that’s exactly what we thought we were getting into with this book (thanks to an Amazon review with that exact phrasing . . . )
I’m sure it isn’t a surprise that we put the book down a lot throughout the week.
BUT despite being a slower read than your run-of-the-mill murder mystery, we were pleasantly surprised by our badass narrator Janina.
To be honest, we didn’t really know what we were getting into. But we knew that the Capitalization was enough to keep our attention until sh*t got weird.
Let’s give you a quick break down before we REALLY break this down: Surrounded by nature in a small secluded Polish town, Janina (YAHN-EEN-A) Duszejko [click for pronuciation] leads a mostly quiet and solitary life, reading astrology and translating poetry. The only thing disrupting her serenity (THIS IS VERY SERIOUS!) are the men who hunt carelessly through the woods. So when a series of murders plague the men in the town, Janina’s gut suspicion is that animals are seeking revenge.
We followed merrily, sometimes sleepily, along with Janina’s musings as she pondered over the ideal relationship between humans, animals, and nature. We also entered fits of laughter as she roasted the entire male population as we patiently awaited the truth. We see why you’re an award-winning author, Olga Tokarczuk.
Honestly, this stopped us from watching Netflix for a week. Now is that saying it was slow, or too hot to handle?
Per our Shine, Sassy rating system, we give you a solid 3. You weren’t our cup of tea, Olga. But we believe that you care about the world, so we care a little bit about you. And if you feed us, this may go to a 5 #potatolovers (but not your mustard soup, please).
What do you think? Buy the book here (and us some time away from the computer. . . at no additional cost to you ;).
Now let’s get down and dirty.
This is where we’re supposed to tell you that there are *** spoilers ahead.***
“No, you shouldn’t move dead bodies.”
(unreliable quote from us, hint hint)
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
Rina: I really thought this was set in the 1800s or something until they talked about movies.
Sadie: Does Janina sound like vagina? Spoiler alert: No, no it doesn’t. Rina is the smart one, guys. Carry on.
R: Off the bat, I started off on the wrong foot. I don’t know how I got it into my head that the narrator was male. It wasn’t until the second chapter, that I realized that she is quite an eccentric older woman — which was definitely reflected in all her strange naming conventions. Did anyone figure out what’s up with all the seemingly random capitalizations? Please let me know.
S: Maybe I’m just accustomed to speaking to crazy old ladies, because that’s definitely who I imagined when it came to the quirky naming. I had to google the random capitalization and here’s the scoop… it’s just another ode to Blake and other classicists. Someone even claimed it’s quasi-biblical. Well, whatever…cool? I guess?
R: I was really thrown for a loop by the way Janina and Oddball approached their neighbor’s dead body. Sorry Sadie, but if you died, my first instinct would not be to change your outfit. I genuinely thought they were living in the olden days when no one understood forensics…nope.
S: Didn’t she save the deer’s head? I mean, this situation is all types of fucked up. And on that note, I’m not sure I agree with you. Seeing as when we die, we shit ourselves, I could NOT leave you in shit. We Caribbean woman have an irrational fear (I swear this was passed on to me) of getting taken away with dirty underwear, usually alive but, now we are getting into semantics. Point blank, I understand them wanting to make sure Big Foot looked his best. It’s not smart, but it’s kind ❤️.
R: I don’t know about you, but the moment Janina found photos rummaging through Big Foot’s house, I knew something was up. And that suspicious feeling lingered in the back of my mind, especially after Janina started dreaming about her dead mother. It just confirmed to me that something was off about this lady. She could potentially be the killer.
S: Really??? YOU KNEW?! And so soon? Jeebus! I honestly thought she was just looking for his birthday. You know, I suppose I never encountered an astrologer serial killer combo. The perfect alibi!
R: Janina walks the fine line between genius and insanity. She can be insightful, and is certainly conniving. She truly played the police for the fools that they are in this story. And there’s something to say about her confidence – her ability to so matter-of-factly state the absurd (for example, that animals are exacting their revenge on humans). I appreciate a strong female character that speaks her mind in the face of overpowering men. But when she goes off on tangents about astrology and her ailments, she really loses me. Although I do have to say that she sparked enough curiosity in me that I looked up my astrological birth charts. If anyone is interested, my sun sign is Libra, moon sign is Aquarius, and rising sign is Sagittarius.
S: The fact that she remembers things like “cucumbis….” (Ok I forget the word for the bug already), in passing led me to honestly admire her intellect. And sure, like you, I skimmed over some of the astrology monologues, but the list of precedents where animals were charged for murder???! Holy hell. I have to fact-check this. Anyway, I was impressed. I think she really believed she was the pillar of hope for all animals and was working with their will in mind. But beyond that, if someone killed my fucking cats, I would have made a plan. It would not have been as good a plan as hers, but that’s where we have to give Janina mad props. I’d love to frame those letters of hers.
P.S. I’m a leo, leo, leo, leo, leo. (Jk, a one hour change in my birth time made my rising sign a virgo, which basically changed everything. Like Janina says, we have to be vigilant with these details).
R: She certainly did have her moments. I don’t think Janina intended to be funny, but her commentary on men made me genuinely laugh. “With age, many men come down with testosterone autism, the symptoms of which are a gradual decline in social intelligence and capacity for interpersonal communication, as well as a reduced ability to formulate thoughts.
“I don’t like those high, powerful cars…Their mighty engines make a lot of noise and produce exhaust fumes. I am convinced that their owners have small dicks and compensate for this deficiency by having large cars.”
S: I saw this classified as a dark feminist comedy, but still the small dicks comment had me cackling. You just don’t expect these things to come out of HER mouth, especially someone who harps on words like “priority” as dirty words.
R: There’s no denying that Olga Tokarczuk is a beautiful writer. But my urge to skim through some parts of this book was STRONG. For me, this was a slow read. And the murder reveal was sort of anticlimatic. In a way I understand, because the murder mystery itself is not meant to be the focus of this book. It’s more of a discourse on animal rights and environmentalism. I am sympathetic to a lot of her arguments, but I didn’t find any of it to be that novel or riveting, maybe because PETA has been saying as much for years, or maybe because we prioritize animal rights and environmental protection a lot more than ten years ago when this book was first written. What did stand out to me was how dark and twisted Janina was. Pretty ironic how she murdered the President while dressed up in an animal costume (that should be enough to give Janina a solid 4 rating on the sassy scale).
S: The prose is delightful and breezy, and it lulls me right to sleep. Man, I get you. I wanted so badly to squeeze the genius out of each section and absorb, but absorb I could not. I felt like I needed a visual representation of the stars and some sort of bullet points to get me through any semblance of a scientific discussion. But maybe that speaks to our attention spans and the fact that we couldn’t get through geology class without watching series in the background (sorry, not sorry). And IT WAS anticlimactic! The minute she wanted to tell her friends goodbye (or that it was the end) I KNEW! I know you knew earlier, but I trusted Janina and I was honestly expecting some deer to be put on trial. And I’m UPSET. I wanted her to marry Oddball after all.
On the sass: A sheep in wolf’s clothing….so good. We see you, girl. You did that!
What did you think of the book? Did you get through it all? Was it “unputdownable?” Did you LOVE it? Share with us!
xoxo,
R&S