okay idk if my rating is accurate bc i’ve been thinking of giving this anything between 2-5 stars. not quite sure how i feel about the book? i listened to the audiobook and it was 22 hours long so it took forever but i got through it all somehow.
it’s incredibly well written, the digressions and descriptions are vivid and entertaining but on the other hand i didn’t really like any of the characters but at the same time they’re very well written and flawed for a reason so??? idk this book is a lot. at points it did make me physically nauseous, mostly because it feels extremely raw. ultimately the biggest positive aspect of it was that it deals with family and sibling dynamics which!!! i eat that stuff UP and the ending is probably one of my favorite endings of all time. it takes forever to get there but i guess it was worth it after all. and the part where the main character say something like when two frenchmen engage in conversation it’s something almost spiritual, meaningful & mutual whereas norwegians engage in conversation to show someone they can stick a nail through their nose or something like that… he kinda spilled! there are a lot of allusion sprinkled throughout the book but i especially loved the norse mythology sprinkled in anywhere from digressions and descriptions to the names of the characters. even though i ended up liking it more than i thought i would for like 80% of the book i still don’t really feel tempted to read the sequel even though that’s the most iconic one? i liked the ending and it feels complete to me so i don’t feel like continuing the series anytime soon.