You know who did what form the beginning, basically,but the poetic writing, and the unfolding of the story behind the murder still hold interest and the characterization and heartfelt, complex interactions between the characters make it well worthwhile ( )

The best novels transport us to new and unfamiliar places and experiences. Grim, cold, though ultimately warm, and relentlessly brutal, this is one of those novels. I'm looking forward to my next encounter with Hannah Kent. ( )

Book, I'm breaking up with you. This shouldn't hurt you too much, you have lots of other conquests under your belt, but you're not right for me. The way you were described sounded intriguing, but unfortunately things went poorly from the start, when you came in all romance novel like.

"Hello, young lady." The man looked down at Steina and her filthy skirts with an air of bemusement. "I see I have interrupted you at your chores."...
Blondal slowly rose to his full height. "I have no choice," he said, his voice suddenly low and dangerous. "Your father's title comes with responsibility."

And I don't mind a slow courtship most of the time, but the way you took 100 pages to establish that people in this narrow minded place don't like loose women and "murderesses", a word I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing again following your frequent use of it, without bringing up anything very interesting, didn't establish a reason to overcome my misgivings.

And of course everyone has quirks, but there is one of yours that really bugged me, I must admit. The way you repeatedly began lines of dialogue with a two word sentence consisting of [person's name] [action]. These examples taken from a short conversation covering pages 111-113 will serve to demonstrate what I mean:

"Margret hesitated."
"Ingibjorg sighed."
"Ingibjorg smiled."
"Ingibjorg paused."
"Ingibjorg nodded."
"Margret winced."
"Ingibjorg laughed."
"Margret tittered."
"Margret snorted."

I'm sorry, it's like nails down a chalkboard for me. I just can't do it. I'm moving on with my life. ( )

Desolate, expressive, and solemn. I listened to this on audiobook and felt like I was there in Iceland seeing this all in person. Beautiful but in the most wrenching sort of way. ( )

I'm giving this a somewhat reluctant three. It was a little difficult for me to get into the book with the Icelandic names so at the suggestion of a friend I downloaded the audio -- great suggestion!

I finally got into the swing and rhythm of the book about a third of the way through. I appreciated the writing and the mood but was mostly bored by the plot. Some of the scenes involving dreams confused me more than adding something good. I didn't care much for any of the characters but I wanted to. I felt as if I was teased a bit -- just starting to care about them or understand them and then we didn't hear a thing about them again. (I'm thinking about the daughters here and Toti.)

For reasons I can't explain I was surprised by the ending and even MORE surprised by the epilogue. Once I read the epilogue and realized how much of what I read was true, I liked the book quite a bit more. The things that were unsatisfying were easier for me to accept when I understood that they were fact and not decisions made by the author. ( )