Great book. I will never forget where i was in real life while i was reading this book. I dont know why. I still remember the smell of the air while i was reading this book. Main character went through a lot and it was great to see him grow. Have not read the sequels yet. 8/10
In the Depth of PostmodernismFelsefe
I've never read a book that was both so complex and so organized at the same time as this one. Metafiction, fragmented structure, questioning metanarratives, posthumanism, postcolonialism, and all the "post-" are combined in this book. The book's self-reflective nature and its direct conversation with the reader have made it one of my favorite books written from a second-person perspective. It has a style that leads the reader into paradoxes, confuses them, and definitely broadens their horizons. Especially the stories that follow each episode are like a narrative version of the main plot of that episode. For example, in the first chapter, we, as readers, embark on a journey. A reading journey. The title of the next chapter is "If on a winter's night a traveler". So it's about someone who's embarked on a journey, a traveler. But this episode is cut short, and our character's journey is interrupted. Just like we, the readers, are constantly interrupted by the narrator throughout this book. There's a mystery in this chapter. We don't know what that mystery is. We also encounter a mystery while reading this book; which book are we reading? Why is the book incomplete? Where is the rest? And in the next chapter, we, the readers, are on the hunt for the continuation of the previous story. We go to the bookstore and find another story that could be a sequel. But this story we found has been replaced by the main story. Just like the main plot of the story we are about to read. So throughout the book, we, the readers and narrators, speak first, taking on an active role. At the end of each chapter, we read a different story. And these stories are like continuations of the previous chapter's narrative.
This rather confusing book achieves its purpose: it bores the reader. But
0-30p: Kontrollü okuyucu 📖
40-70p: Hafif bağımlı 👀
80p+: Geçmiş olsun, kitaplar seni ele geçirmiş 😅
Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. I never expected this book to completely draw me in like this. It actually surprised me multiple times. Just when I thought I had figured everything out and knew what was going on, I realized the author had tricked me again. There were so many unexpected events. From the very beginning, it feels like we were reading a lie. Wow… Especially the way the story shifts between the present and the past… I’m once again grateful that I know English. The reason I picked up the book was because it was the audiobook Taylor listened to in the Eras Tour documentary. I wish I could have listened to it as an audiobook too, but still—it was truly a great experience. It was very engaging to read, constantly making me wonder what would happen next, where everything was heading… And I also loved how everything was tied together in the end.
Especially the final sentence was beautiful.
Açıkçası nereden başlasam bilemiyorum. Bu kitabın beni böyle alıp sarmasını hiç beklemiyordum. Hatta kitap resmen beni birden fazla kez şaşırttı. Tam her şeyi öğrendim, ne olduğunu biliyorum dediğim an bile aslında yazar tarafından şaşırtıldığımı anladım. Hiç beklemediğim olaylar oldu. Hikâyenin başından beri resmen bir yalanı okuyormuşuz. Vay canına... Özellikle günümüz ve geçmişe gitmemiz.... Bir kez daha İngilizce biliyor olmama şükrediyorum... Kitabı okuma sebebim Taylor'ın Eras Tour belgeselinde dinlediği sesli kitap olması. Bende sesli bir şekilde dinlemek isterdim ama olsun. Cidden güzel bir tecrübeydi. Okuması baya güzeldi ve sürekli sonra ne oldu, ne olacak, nereye varacaklar... Her şeyin bir sonuca bağlanması da güzeldi ayrıca...
Özellikle son cümle çok güzeldi.
"When she looks back to the island she sees only the pines, drawn closed like a curtain
Spoiler alert!!! But it was disappointing
I honestly don't know where to start... I guess this story meant to have feminist themes, but the characters were so shallow and caricatural that it actually felt anti-feminist.
Actually, the whole story reads like an anti-feminist's idea of a dystopian liberal women's community.
It's baffling that the premise relies on a community of women who want to live away from men, yet they are still so heavily dependent on a male writer for their economic well-being.
There are digital jobs, you know? A lot of women sell things on Etsy or find creative ways to make a living.
We see real-world examples of resilient women (even those who never had the chance to go to school) supporting themselves and their communities independently every day. Yet, this book insists on keeping everything male-oriented. There were no inspiring stories here, just women needing a male writer to make money so they could live like Smurfs.
ALSO, THEY COULD HAVE JUST FOUND A FEMALE WRITER WHO WANTED TO LIVE ON AN ISLAND!
Also, sorry, but what was that murder plan? Grady lying on the road dressed as a woman? Really? Is this dude a cartoon bandit? And why the cross-dressing? This is the second Alice Feeney book I've read where the villain is a man dressed as a woman.
Furthermore, how did his wife not hear him talking on the ground, see the phone, or hear the car approaching through the call? It feels like the author tried too hard to create a twist, to the point where it stopped making any sense.
Anyway, to be fair, this book was actually interesting and I couldn't stop reading for a while but the ending was just so disappointing that it immediately lost 3 stars from me.
Puan vermedi·224 syf.·
2025 20. kitabı
[english below]
zeynep, başından sonuna kocaman sarılmak istediğim biri oldu. korkularımız, hayata bakışımız o kadar benzer ki. içindeki insanları siyah beyaz olarak ayırma isteği, kırılıp üzülme korkusundan geldiğinden hep o gökkuşağı renklerinden kaçışı olsun, insanlara ne kadar yakınlaşırsa o kadar kırılacağı korkusu olsun... hele aşk. toplumun baskılarına, kadınlara yüklediği sorumluluklar listesine bir savaş tekniği olarak baktığı evlenmeyeceğim nidaları. kocaman sarılmak istedim kendisine. zeynep'in kişisel gelişimi ise ne kadar güzeldi bir yandan da. tam olarak o bahsettiği murakami'nin, o kum fırtınasının içinden geçeceksin ve nasıl geçtiğini anlamayacaksın, nasıl hayatta kaldığını hiç anlayamayacaksın alıntısının zihninde dönüşleri. öyle değil mi hayat? içinden geçtiğimiz kum fırtınalarına şimdi olduğumuz yerden bakıyoruz, ben mesela diyorum ki ben nasıl geçtim bundan, nasıl hala ayakta durabiliyorum? zeynep de öyle bir acıda kavruldu ama kendi yolunu o geçmişindeki korkulara bağlayarak durdurmadan çizmeyi başardı. hayatın içinden birini okumak isterseniz kesinlikle tavsiye ederim.
zeynep has been someone i wanna hug tightly from beginning to end. our fears, our outlook on life..so similar. her tendency to see people in black and white, her avoidance of rainbow colors, all stemming from a fear of being hurt and broken. the more she gets close to people, the more she fears being hurt. and love, especially. her cry of “i won’t get married” as a form of resistance against societal pressure and the list of responsibilities imposed on women - it’s her way of fighting. i truly wanted to embrace her.
and then, zeynep’s personal growth was something so beautiful in itself. it was exactly like that murakami quote she mentions: “you’ll go through the storm, and you
Silent Patient ( story wise writing)
Now that I have finished reading “ the silent patient”, I am very amazed by the ability of the author who truly made me shocked at the end of the story that he happens to call psychological detective story… people prefer calling this book a novel but I bet it doesn’t last too long after reading the book or coming to an end that was shockingly twisted. Spoiler - The therapist would be the last person to be suspicious of as he made it sound very normal and approached to every scene and detail as a therapist whose main job is to help people. BUT never mind, nothing is the way it seems like in this life, Turkish people say if everything was the way it seemed like then water from sea would appear blue in our hands. This is what I felt when seeing the truth, the kind of truth I wouldn’t be able to imagine if Theo, the therapist didn’t reveal if at the end of the story. Or should I say the beginning of an end ? Do stories truly end or what we call “ ending” is a beginning of a new chapter…. He approached and had written it in a way that made him sound look or even appear like a “ real therapist” who carry feelings of morality, depth, integrity and truly has compassion and eager to help people who are in trouble… like Alicia….. A person, a human being, an artist who was mentally sick as the members of Grove called…. She was a psycho in their interpretations…. But who knows what drew her to kill him? Who truly has enough empathy to try to understand what she went through to do such a thing rather than being as anyone else and calling her a “ bitch” how easy it must be to call someone that… when you don’t know anything except what police officers or investigators say… As people or human beings who immediately call someone “guilty” without giving it a try to understand or