The Incendiaries

by R.O. Kwon

[clementine]

2.5 stars

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did! I really enjoyed Kwon's prose (though it definitely bordered on flowery at times) as well as the generally haunted, uneasy atmosphere she evoked. There were other elements which should have made me love this book (the unreliable narration, the cult theme) but that didn't totally convince me. I feel like this relatively short novel was grappling with so many big themes (namely religion, cults, and grief) and just didn't make it far past the surface of any of them. There was a disconnect in Phoebe's character as it was presented and the climax of the novel, perhaps because Will is the primary narrator and he does not descend into the cult. It's frustrating, then, to not be able to understand how Phoebe got from point A to point B, and maybe that's the point (that Will could be so consumed by somebody who he ultimately never knew), but that opacity was difficult for me to get past. I also feel like the book is billed as something it's not - the plot that's promised happens at the very end, and most of the book is devoted to Phoebe and Will's relationship, which I never really cared that much about. It's like, oh, emotionally fucked up hot girl with a boyfriend who's obsessed with the idea of her? I've never read that before! It's almost disappointing that it's a woman writing this narrative... like do we not have enough male authors subjecting us to this dynamic?

I also felt like the time period was confused. These characters have laptops and cell phones but they never seem to text each other. I want to resist making the Secret History comparison but I do feel this book begs it - it's like, you know, unrealistically pretentious and bizarre college students getting themselves into a horrific situation. But it worked in The Secret History because it was another time. The abundance of technology breaks the spell in this novel, even though the technology isn't even used realistically half the time. This book should have been set in the 90s. That's what I think. It's a weird point to nitpick, but I couldn't help but feel the entire time that the book was suffering from chronological confusion.

Okay, also, the rape scene. That was another thing that just... wasn't really addressed? Like, it happened, and then it's referenced again at the end of the novel, but it's just not really a thing. So weird.

I don't know. This is a very hard book to write a review on. I feel like you have to read it to get it. I liked it more when I was reading it, but the more I think about it, the less I liked it.