Let's conclude the Duncton series with this book. Spoilers ahead.
Side note: Content warning for mentions of SA/rape/incest in this review.
Quail and his Newborns have by now taken over most systems, and the moles live in fear of their cultish tyranny. But hope remains among the followers of the Stone. Key figures in inspiring said hope are Privet, Pumpkin, and Maple. Will the moles be freed from the Newborns' rule? And will the Book of Silence finally be found?
Okay, so, prefacing this by saying: I don't hate this book. This review will be on the more negative side, but despite this I didn't hate Duncton Stone. I do still think that it has a good plot structure, some very well-written characters (I love Privet, for example) and of course the deep themes of hope and religious freedom still persist like they did in the other books, and they are well-handled.
But man. This book is dark. Really dark and messed up. Now, I have been reading more mature books in recent years after avoiding them for a long time. And usually I can handle them okay. But I do feel that the constant darkness is really to this book's detriment. The previous Duncton books were also pretty dang dark sometimes, but there were more moments of levity and they didn't seem utterly obsessed with how dark things could get. This book? The darkness is all over the place.
It also doesn't help that Horwood is utterly obsessed with is villains being as vile as possible in this book, and feeling the need to constantly remind us of it. There's quite a few rape/SA scenes, and aside from that they're also just, well, gross. In the most literal sense. I do get wanting to establish a threat with your villains, that's fine, but when it feels like the author is constantly going out of his way to hammer home "LOOK AT HOW FUCKED UP AND VILE MY VILLAINS ARE!" every few chapters it gets old, fast.
I do personally experience topics like SA/rape as very depressing and triggering, but I do acknowledge that that's also a bit of a me-thing. But even if you can handle these themes very well, it still feels overkill because the author just won't shut up for more than a few chapters about how disgusting his villains are.
It honestly got to the point where Horwood even kinda forgot about his main character for a few hundred pages or so at around the 3/4 mark of the book. This book has many players and POVs, but in the end Privet is our main character of the story, the most important one. And she just gets completely sidelined for a few hundred pages, which felt off. I do know that she's taken a vow of Silence during this time in the story, but it's still very possible to write a non-speaking character and give them a solid presence. But this didn't really happen with Privet. She just mostly felt like she was "there" during this part of the story. The author once again seemed more interested in yet more POV chapters for Pumpkin and the vile villains rather than giving Privet the spotlight she deserves.
The ending of the book is also kinda messed up, with the rapist Squelch being redeemed. And Whillan has incest-babies with his cousin/adopted sister, and this is portrayed as a good thing.
Despite these issues I do acknowledge, like I said before, that this is not a bad book. But it didn't do much for me personally and if this is where the Duncton series truly ends, it wasn't a very satisfying ending for me. It was too obsessed with being dark and vile for me to really be able to enjoy this as a book. Even if it has a better structure than previous books and I do love some of the characters and of course the themes, this one didn't stick the landing for me.
Rating: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment