Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by squeaksmcgueaks
The Centaur's Wife by Amanda Leduc
3.0
I got this through a blind date with a book and was honestly kind of skeptical (I feel like "The _______'s Wife" titles are quite tired now), but decided to give it a try anyway. Ultimately, I liked a lot of elements of the book - it has a really interesting mix of fairy tales and a kind of environmental horror that echoes Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation". I also enjoyed the way disability, ableism, ableism, and trauma are weaved through the story without feeling forced or devolving into tropes. The story itself was totally wild and weird, but in a good way. The book was engaging enough that I finished it over the course of a day of travelling.
However, I just didn't like how everything came together narratively. I think in stories like this one it makes sense to not have all of the plot lines nearly tied up, but that approach sometimes just left the story feeling incomplete.
**SPOILERS**
For example, I don't think the lineage between the different humans - the centaur's wife, the doctor(s), the main characters in present day - needed to be explicitly laid out, but I personally found them to be confusing enough that it took away from the story. For example, the twin babies seem to get their red hair from B, but there's also the implication that it might be related to the fox or that them being twins comes from the very first doctor, neither of whom seem to have any connection at all to B.
One thing that Leduc does do quite masterfully is examining really uncomfortable emotions and experiences. She shows what looks like post-partum depression in a way that's quite brutal without painting the mother as a monster who hates her children. She also tells different stories of grief, showing that while people may experience it in different ways, it's rarely straightforward and the people we lose never fully leave us.
Ultimately, I didn't love the story but it really piqued my interest in the author - I will definitely be checking out her nonfiction book on fairy tales and disability and keep an eye out for her future work.
However, I just didn't like how everything came together narratively. I think in stories like this one it makes sense to not have all of the plot lines nearly tied up, but that approach sometimes just left the story feeling incomplete.
**SPOILERS**
For example, I don't think the lineage between the different humans - the centaur's wife, the doctor(s), the main characters in present day - needed to be explicitly laid out, but I personally found them to be confusing enough that it took away from the story. For example, the twin babies seem to get their red hair from B, but there's also the implication that it might be related to the fox or that them being twins comes from the very first doctor, neither of whom seem to have any connection at all to B.
One thing that Leduc does do quite masterfully is examining really uncomfortable emotions and experiences. She shows what looks like post-partum depression in a way that's quite brutal without painting the mother as a monster who hates her children. She also tells different stories of grief, showing that while people may experience it in different ways, it's rarely straightforward and the people we lose never fully leave us.
Ultimately, I didn't love the story but it really piqued my interest in the author - I will definitely be checking out her nonfiction book on fairy tales and disability and keep an eye out for her future work.