Review: Living Next Door to the God of Love

[wshaffer]

Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think I probably need to read this book again before really reviewing it. It's a dense and complex book, too much to take in on a first reading.

This book is kaleidoscopic - it uses fragments from many points of view to build up the story. Sometimes it switches POV in the middle of a single scene, though usually you'll stay in one point of view long enough to see a particular sequence of actions through. It does a wonderful job of worldbuilding, and rarely indulges in infodumps. This is a book you have to read with your full attention, just to put together the plot and the characters and the world.

And that is where my problems lie - as much as I loved this book, I felt like there was a lot I didn't get. For example, at a climactic moment, one character says to another:

I told you all this and remade you for one reason only. If you don't know what it is by now, then you'll never know, and my winding down to nothing won't matter.

The character being addressed apparently does know, but I haven't got a clue. And that's far from the only time the book left me going, "Huh?"

Also, a warning: The story features the rape of a major character as a plot point. Twice. I don't particularly feel that it's gratuitous in either case, but I know some readers just don't want to go there.

Compelling but frustrating book. I'll definitely be adding more Justina Robson to my to-read list, though.

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