Attempted to read IWWV as I needed something to chase TSH with. Donna Tartt’s writing was so detailed, atmospheric, perceptive, deliberate, and incredible. The book comforts me greatly, and inspires me, and I can think about all different aspects of it endlessly. It was also just so *smart*. Beyond well-written. Reading it felt like reading a true passion project, meticulously crafted.
So when everyone recommended If We Were Villains, and I saw it had the same score (actually, one point more than…) The Secret History, I thought it would be just what I needed.
I don’t even know where to begin. It is beyond contrived, feels like a very sad sketch of an attempt of something in the vein of what Tartt was doing, but executed so haphazardly and with wayyyyy less skill. I didn’t finish it. I read a synopsis once I got through a bit past the halfway point because I couldn’t stand it anymore, bored to tears and a bit insulted that I was supposed to believe this book was dark, brooding, shocking, or intense because of some degree of violence and yearning peppered throughout. And that ending…. to me, it was the ending of somebody who needed to tie something up with a bit of intrigue, rather than something genuinely considered to fit and be believable.
Please stop telling people that IWWV is anything in the realm of TSH. It is just not true.
by jocantsswim