The Need by Helen Phillips is a strange nightmare of a novel. from description: From the award-winning author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat, comes a subversive genre-busting thriller about a woman who grapples with the complex dualities of motherhood—joy and dread, tenderness and anxiety—after confronting a masked intruder in her home.
Real, supernatural, science fiction, psychological? I never could decide. Toward the end, I began to find it tedious, but kept on hoping for more enlightenment. The Need reads like a bad dream and has the same open-ended feeling of being unable clarify or interpret with any genuine understanding. That wispy feeling of trying to remember, interpret, and understand an eerie nightmare.
Maybe that was just me. I've never been particularly good at being able to synthesize dreams, to meld the elements into a coherent whole. I ended up with the same vague emotional reaction to something that failed to emerge as a comprehensible description.
Read in Jan.; blog review scheduled for June 24
NetGalley/Simon & Schuster
??? July 9, 2019. 252 pages.
I am a terrible reader of books like this one. Thanks for the warning.
ReplyDeleteReviews are mixed, but The Need didn't work for me.
DeleteWell, damn, one to avoid -- and I liked the blurb too.
ReplyDeleteI liked the blurb, too, and made some assumptions about the content that were wrong. :)
DeleteHmmm...I saw this one on a site some time back. Good to know your thoughts on it. Might be one I could skip or certainly put on a back burner. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI need a bit more clarification in my reading than this one provided, but some readers loved it.
DeleteI'm not a good reader of these kinds of books, either. I will be passing on this one. :)
ReplyDeleteNot every book is a fit for every reader. The Need didn't work for me, and I never had a clear idea of what was going on. Nevertheless, there are a number of very positive reviews on Goodreads.
DeleteI've heard of The Beautiful Bureaucrat from people who liked it, but not so much that I felt I needed to read it myself. I often like surreal stuff, but not if it is too out there or too open ended.
ReplyDeleteMaybe too open-ended was part of my problem. :)
DeleteI never heard of his one or the author, and from the blurb + your thoughts, lol, I have no idea what the heck this is about! I could go in blind and give it a shot, but no thanks... I think I'll pass. Thanks for your review.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wish someone I know would read it and let me know how they felt about it. The reviews on Goodreads are an interesting mix. :)
DeleteHmm... I'm not sure about this one. The blurb sounds interesting, though. I'll probably read it if I come across a library copy.
ReplyDeleteIf you do come across a library copy and read it, I'd love to hear what you think, Melody!
Delete