masterful and fascinating

pros:
- this is so cleverly interwoven stories. All the characters are fascinatingly real and engaging (...except perhaps the first eric was my least favourite)
- personally, i loved the Viking aspects; i'm learning a little old norse at university and the details about knarrs, the burials/cremations, the introduction of Christianity, the raiding, and the names were all in accord with what i knew which was lovely.
- it was just so clever, i loved how the phrases about the Devil and the 'so it is' were woven in.
- i liked that it rejected heteronormativity in having the two female incarnations, along with the mother and son and all the others (i thought this might seem really weird - lover reincarnated as parent/child, but it was handled very well and didn't seem at all in the world created)
- i loved the magic realism, i think it would be fairly called, and the folklore of the Dracula orchid - which really reminded me of the lotus flowers in Homer, which was really cool. and i liked that the payoff for the long-life was having no children, it seemed a very fitting price.
- i love that hares were used, idk why, i just liked that reoccurring symbolism. it reminded me of a poem called 'The Lammas Hireling" which is really good - https://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/lammas-hireling
- everything just came together *really well*. the storytelling with Laura(/Merle's ghost??) was interesting as a set-up with the twins, as well as the story itself. I loved how everything came out backwards
- i was just..invested in almost all the characters?? Erik in the world war with David, Edward the archaeologist (though he was a bit silly not propping the dig up), Merle, Erik as Merle's kid, the Viking twins, etc.
- it was also delightfully creepy, especially at the start. It's dark and the ideas explored, of always forgetting, were so interesting but so disturbing too? i loved it
- i loved that there was a real painting included in the story - minvinterblot by Carl Larsson(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Larsson_midvinterblot_skiss_1915.jpg/1024px-Larsson_midvinterblot_skiss_1915.jpg). it was really fascinating to see the painting at the end of the book, because it wasn't like i'd imagined. i'd been thinking something indoors and really dark and crowded, but the painting looks almost calm and ceremonial, but its really gorgeous and i can see why Sedgwick found it so inspiring. it just begs for a story to be written for it. (also this is ekphrasis which is a literary trope and i feel very English student-y to be able to put a fancy greek word to it lol)
(- i also liked the reading notes for suggesting that the hares and dragons were good and evil, which is interesting. and for making me realise that Tor is the Devil and that's why the people keep saying the phrase (this hadn't clicked in my head).)


cons:
- i didn't like the start (so much so that i wasn't altogether sure i'd continue reading the book, which would have been so sad!). it had the ring of 'lust at first sight' and seemed stereotypically heterosexual attraction and i didn't like the 'OneDegree' social media thing. (but the lust at first sight makes sense later in the book and the heteronormativity is *definitely* confronted head on).
- i was a little sad that they didn't get a happy ending i guess? it was open-ended in a way, even tho we're told quite clearly they're going to die. but the talk of the sea and swimming makes me want to imagine them as becoming seals together. idk why. i just like the idea. And the 'so it begins' suggests another 7 lives, doesn't it? i'm not sure.
(- also, i thought it was a kids book by the cover, but i don't think it is?? i mean, i know kids don't have to read about fluff and marshmallows but this did seem decidedly creepy enough with the murder and all that maybe it should have been more obviously tailored towards teens and above? i dunno, maybe i'm being patronising. i sure read "worse" stuff when i was like 12)

so it was super good and would recommend :)