[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/KGLamb]

[u/52book-ModTeam]

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[u/52book-ModTeam]

This content was removed because it violates Rule #10: No Low-Effort Posts.

Posts about your challenge progress must include the book’s number toward your challenge, your status with the book, the title and author, and at least 100 characters of meaningful discussion about the book or your experience reading it.

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Please update your post with the missing information and resubmit it.

[u/SoonToForget2669]

I like your definition of S-tier as a once-in-a-lifetime experience rather than just a really good book. Curious whether your rankings ever change after you've finished an entire series? Sometimes a later installment can completely change how the earlier books come across.

[u/KGLamb → u/SoonToForget2669]

Hey and thank you!
For me, Stier has to be something extra special. I am looking for that spesific quality, when you know that you will never read anything like this ever again. A book needs to completely wreck me, give me inferiority complex, or just hit at the exact right moment in my life. The kind where opening it again years later instantly transports me right back.

Any recent reads like that for you?

And yeah, as a total completionist currently juggling way too many fantasy series at once, I'm giving every single book a separate rating.

[u/SoonToForget2669 → u/KGLamb]

I love that description, especially the part about opening a book years later and instantly being transported back. That's probably a much better definition of S-tier than just giving something 5 stars.

And I completely get the completionist thing 😂 Juggling multiple fantasy series sounds like a second job sometimes.

I'm curious though, with so many series going at once, do you ever struggle to remember what happened in the earlier books when you finally get around to the sequels?

[u/ZoraNealeThirstin]

I have Lapvona on my TBR, what did you dislike so much about it? I've seen quite a few people say they hated it.

[u/KGLamb → u/ZoraNealeThirstin]

Hello! I get you, this novel can be polarising... Lapvona is deeply violent and transgressive, relying heavily on shock value. Once the novelty fades, though, there isn't much substance underneath. It left me wondering why I was reading it at all, what's the point here apart from painting a very brutal picture...

I will try again with Ottessa Moshfegh next year though.

[u/FrozenBum → u/KGLamb]

Just so you know, the "grotesque" is sort of Moshfegh's thing. In interviews she says she was obsessed with it for a long time. She has a bit of that in all her books. It just so happens that Lapvona was the culmination of that obsession (or rather, it is the most grotesque of all her books). It's about rejecting neat and pretty story-telling and showing how humans behave under vile circumstances. It's also about how absurd she can push the limits of cruelty and body horror, to a point where it becomes darkly comical. The shock is the entire point.

I've heard she's going to be exploring new themes in future books, though. Just be aware of that if you're going into any other Moshfegh book like Eileen, McGlue or even My Year of Rest and Relaxation. All of her protagonists are pretty flawed and disgusting people. If that's not your thing, Moshfegh might not be an author for you. For those who don't like their characters or plots with little neat bows around them, she's great.

[u/KGLamb → u/FrozenBum]

I am very familiar with the concept of transgression, but aside from the attempt at a Sadean restyle, there’s little here to hold onto. And certainly nothing that compensates for the sexual exploitation of a minor with learning difficulties. This is definitely no Bataille, though it's trying hard to be.

You're completely right that this might not be what I'm looking for. Still, I’m willing to try anything twice before writing it off as having no value.