CW: child abuse, incest, sexual assault, sexual content, violence, gore, death, slavery.

The Porpoise is one of those books I was really excited about when I first found out about it: I had loved Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and so I was very much looking forward to this. Then, I somehow forgot about it as it got lost in my massive TBR and I only recently rediscovered it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite meet my expectations.

The Porpoise follows two parallel storylines, with snippets of a third one sprinkled throughout. The first one, set in apparently modern times, follows Angelica, a beautiful young woman who lives in solitude with her rich, overprotective father ever since as a baby she was the sole survivor of a plane crash. But in this gilded cage horrible secrets are kept, until one day a visitor understands more than he should and becomes the target of a skilled assassin. As he flees aboard a ship called The Porpoise, his own story merges with a past tale, a retelling of the myth of Pericles, which forms the second storyline.

The premise was really interesting, but the execution just didn't work for me. I was often confused as the book jumped between the two storylines and the interludes featuring none other than Shakespeare himself. I ended up not caring about any of the characters at all, and there are so many of them (maybe even too many). There was also quite a lot of graphic violence which I was not expecting, and some of the themes were hard to stomach which possibly contributed to my unease when reading this. I alternated between bored and confused for most of this and the few passages and underlying themes that were interesting were sadly just not enough for me to enjoy this book.

I did find the writing to be beautiful (and possibly one of the only redeeming features of this). I really liked the richness of the prose and the vivid descriptions, so I was even sadder when I just couldn't connect with the characters! The underlying critique of wealth and its power to corrupt, persuade or coerce those who are surrounded by it was also interesting but for me it was just too little, too late.

Unfortunately, this one was just not the right fit for me, but given the author's rich writing and wealth of characters and events, I can certainly see how it might work for other readers out there.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )

This imaginative enmeshing of lives in modern day England with the adventures of the Greek hero Pericles will especially appeal to those readers who enjoy such novels as Circe and The Song of Achilles. It begins with a plane crash and ends with a shipwreck and is dominated by remarkable women and even a goddess. There are beautifully designed parallels between Angelica, daughter of Maya who died in the plane crash, and Marina, daughter of Chloe, who is shoved into a crude coffin and thrown overboard during an ancient shipwreck. Darius, modern day savior of Angelica and enemy of her predatory father Philippe, is transformed into Pericles and transported to ancient Greece as he sails away from England and the vengeful Philippe. Also making a startling appearance is William Shakespeare and one of his carousing buddies, heading for Hades. The denouement is as lovely and as satisfying as that of familiar fairy tales and folklore. A most creative plot and unforgettable characters are enjoined with marvels of the survival of women in peril. ( )

Amazing novel, very grim. A little hard to keep track of, but I guess that kind of makes me like it. Elements of gothic fantasy but with beautiful writing. Overlapping stories, different time periods, similar sense of dread. Maybe would be even better if you were familiar with the historical Pericles and the various legends about him and Apollonius including the Shakespeare play - but I certainly didn’t know any of that and liked it anyway. Great when a novel has a bibliography!

PS - Here’s a weird thing, the word “juddering” appears 4 times in the book, and also “judders” appears once. Isn’t that too much? It’s a nice word but if I had been the editor I would have flagged it... ( )

A retelling of the Pericles story and then some. Intertwining tales ranging from the ancient world, through Shakespeare's day, up to the modern era. The Porpoise is a ship, and ships, the sea, and the perils of travel run throughout, with shifting casts of characters who reflect one another. Crime, passions (and criminal passions), wars, axe fights, lethal anorexia, mutiny of different sorts, parental awfulness and tragedy, faltering men and superhuman women... all gorgeously rendered by Haddon in spare, pitch-perfect, vivid prose.

A rare gem, this book: a singular, brilliantly imaginative story with roots in our most classic Western literature, and wonderfully written to boot. And I loved the fact that one character, utterly gutted by the death of his wife, in his grief can do nothing but read Fred Vargas and Arnaldur Idridison novels - two of my favorite crime writers. Thank you, Mr. Haddon! ( )

Des que la seva mare va morir en un tràgic accident aeri, l'Angelica ha crescut en una bombolla, aïllada del món, envoltada de luxes i sota l'atenta vigilància del seu pare. Per. quan el jove Darius aconsegueix traspassar els murs del seu fortí, descobreix un secret que posarà en joc la seva vida. A partir d'aquest moment, tots dos emprendran una aventura que els transportarà a la Grècia clàssica i a un mar ple de naufragis, plagues, pirates i palaus. Sota l'atenta mirada dels déus, el destí dels dos joves els mantindrà units per un fil invisible capaç de viatjar en el temps i salvar-los per sempre. L'autor d'El curiós incident del gos a mitjanit torna a sorprendre la crítica i el públic amb un mite modern en què la hist.ria antiga i la contemporània s'entrecreuen per donar lloc a un món nou on poder viure.