Well, this was probably the least satisfying thing I've read for a while, and the main reason I've given it 3 stars is because I got through it because it was mercifully short. It's a little hard to tell what's going on here. On the surface, a woman is having a hard time coping with her life because of the lasting effects of her sister's suicide, and decides to leave her husband without a word and travel halfway around the world to New Zealand, to take up a vague "hey if you're ever in New Zealand, look me up" invitation she received from a stranger once. I liked the concept, but really it is a kind of stream of consciousness account of this woman's mental breakdown. Eventually, after wandering a foreign country like a vagabond for what appears to be months, punctuated by encounters with people who ultimately find her anti-social, or who bug her in some way, she ends up in hospital. She has the opportunity to figure out what is wrong with her psyche during a psychological assessment, but is unable to come clean with the doctor about what is really going on in her head, despite expressing a wish (to herself, at least) to do so. So, she goes back to New York where she has nothing and nobody and the story just ends. And frankly, I did not find myself sympathetic to this character or the psychotic break or whatever she is going through. I hoped there would be some kind of resolution, but I wasn't surprised that there was not. ( )

Oof. I read this a year or so ago and I still think very sadly of that time. There are a few beautiful turns of phrase and visuals, but mostly I was bored as shit ( )

Oof. I read this a year or so ago and I still think very sadly of that time. There are a few beautiful turns of phrase and visuals, but mostly I was bored as shit ( )

I skimmed it. The writing was frustrating and overwrought which made the characters weirdly empty, like shell people. I got a tension headache trying to constantly give this book the benefit of the doubt, but it’s just not as deep or insightful as it thinks it is. I don’t believe I’m missing anything by not reading every word. ( )

Well-written, but I had absolutely no patience for the self-involved Elyria. ( )