so-soI didn‘t love it…which honestly, comes as a surprise because everything else I‘ve read by Russell I really enjoyed. It has the right ingredients—interesting setting (Dust Bowl), a witch, a sentient scarecrow, a mystery, but…BUT, it‘s ponderous & slow moving, told in multiple POVs which aren‘t all that distinctive, & somehow (impossibly) devoid of emotional depth. I really should have cared about these characters & I just didn‘t. Just a so-so read.
so-soI was looking forward to this one and am a little disappointed by it. It tells the story of a series of murders but the organization isn‘t great, making it disjointed. It also tells it to some degree from a social justice lens, which I loved, but I think it would have been better if that was the focus and the murders and attitudes around them were illustrative. #WPNF25
pickHistorical fiction steeped in magical realism unfolds here in a pre-technicolor Oz of Uz, NE. Beautifully written with multiple perspectives, the story comes from the titular Antidote, a Prairie Witch practiced in banking memories away from their experiencer, Asphodel, a fearless orphan obsessed with basketball & new love , her uncle, a farmer who finds sudden fortune after Black Sunday, Cleo, a New Deal photographer, a scarecrow & a cat!
panI just didn't like this book that much, which isn't a popular opinion. It looked at a murder 200 years ago. Dawson wrote about the murder, Williams ( the author of the first book about the murder),and Hawthorne ( how he based the Scarlett Letter off of the victim). It just seemed to me that way too much stuff was going on in the book. It could have been just me, as others liked the book. 2⭐️
#Bookspinbingo #Read2025
pickThis legit might be my fave from Freida. This book is satire and I took it as making fun of all the tropes and the know it all readers.
And…I now interrupt all in-progress reading to start this one. Russell never disappoints, always entertains. Look forward to a great read.
Now Available! 🎉🥳📚
The Antidote- Karen Russell
Book Review- https://www.boleybooks.com//the-antidote/
#boleybooks #TheAntidote #KarenRussell #bookbeast #NetGalley #bookbuds #newbook
Happy 😊 pancakes 🥞 day from the uk 🇬🇧 ☺️mollie moo and I with library 📚 pre orders - I‘m finding the peepshow fascinating 🧐 I wouldn‘t say I‘m enjoying it as the theme/ topic is just so terribly sad 😔 the casual misogyny and racism is making my blood 🩸 boil who the hell would want to live in the 50s let‘s pray 🙏 Wer not moving back towards these despicable attitudes
