Book No. 33 of 2021
I am not going to get into the somewhat petty and possibly unfair reason why I declined to read this book for the longest time; just know that I finally read it and it was so riveting I could not put it down, and I officially adore one of the characters. (TEAM MAEVE!!!)
The Dutch House feels very much like a modern American fairy tale (albeit one with a more bittersweet and realistic ending). Each of the characters is crucially flawed, the narrator included, and the book quietly explores many of the intended and unintended cruelties that families can inflict within themselves and on the next generations. It’s also fascinating how Patchett subtly upends the good mother/evil stepmother trope here—it isn’t until one character points out that these judgments are never applied to fathers that I found myself challenging my own distaste for one character’s (admittedly mind baffling) actions. Also, just gotta say that at least one character here could reeeeeeeally benefit from feminism.
I will never get over the gleeful brilliance of one revenge-based long game here. Team Maeve 4 lyfe.
Similar Reads
The theme of how we perceive and judge mothers reminded me of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is In Trouble.
The beautiful off-the-charts sibling love reminds me of Catherine Chung’s Forgotten Country.