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Not so much a review as a dot point list of reactions
Worth a read. Fiction about science, and families, and the stories we tell ourselves. 4/5
( spoiler-ish footnote )
- Unreliable narrator is unrealible
- Frustratingly telegraphed twist, I was kind of thinking in the right direction*, but missing some key ideas
- science fiction with psychologists. I approve. Particularly at the harder, mathy end of psych.
- supposed to be a tear jerker. Other than one scene in which the protagonist farewells someone, I didn't get that depth of emotion
- I suspect this is because I already know a lot about vivisection. And what animal labs were like in the 90s (I did my first honours project in a locked lab. Which had helpful notices about what to do in the case of bomb threats, or other activities potentially dangerous for scientists or lab animals)
- I think I was supposed to have more sympathy for the protagonist's slightly off-kilter interactions with other humans, and her desire to keep her family secret(s). Or have the voyeuristic othering 'there but for the grace' kind of reaction to her. But hey, psychologist parent, weird home life, missing siblings, significant loss of family at at five, slightly off-kilter interactions with other humans. Hard to other someone who feels a lot like me.
- I kind of understand the narrative motivation that led to the ending. But it fizzled for me.
- The fizzled ending, and the fact that I had to reread the first forty-odd pages again because I had absolutely no idea what I'd read a few days previously, means that I don't rate the book as highly as many people have.
Worth a read. Fiction about science, and families, and the stories we tell ourselves. 4/5
( spoiler-ish footnote )
