Punaisten kyynelten talo ("The house of red tears") by Terhi Rannela
[ audiobook, listened in finnish ]
a fictional story based on real experiences from pol pot's dictatorship in cambodia that turned the whole country into one big concentration camp. the first part of the book jumps between the points of view of a mother and a daughter in 1975 who have already been separated before the narrative begins; the parents and their newest infant are taken to a notoriously cruel prison for torture, while the 9yo daughter is forced to live in labour camps under increasingly dismal conditions.
the second part takes places in the 2000s and switches between the PoVs of the daughter who is now a grown woman and a mother herself, her husband, and their daughter as they deal with the trauma and aftermath of everything that happened in the past.
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➕ this was so fascinating from an educational standpoint, i vaguely knew of pol pot before from having listened to podcasts about dictatorships but there are so many everywhere in the world that the details hadn't stuck before. i also didn't know a whole lot about cambodia as a country in general. (i think geoguessr once tossed me in angkor wat and i had no idea what it was) i love learning about cultural stuff, though this one focused on a very negative era of this country. but it was interesting in the morbid way that dictatorships are.
➕ the first half was extremely gruesome and interesting, with both the mother and daughter's PoVs being gripping and engaging…
➖ …the second part, not so much. only the daughter's (now mother's) PoV was necessary there, really. the father, eh, maybe just barely, he's dealing with the trauma of having been one of the officers taking part in torturing and killing people but at least i didn't catch whether he was one of the guys actually present in the first part or not, probably not, so i was like, why would i care about this random guy now tho. and their daughter's PoV was completely pointless, about her school life and dancing outfits and liking some boy, i guess the point was to illustrate how children in 2005 don't even really know much about the pol pot era but, i was just waiting for her parts to be over tbh
⭐ score: 3½ -- i really enjoy historical novels based on real hardships that people have experienced and my baseline for them is maybe 4, this was good but just mildly below the average because of that less engaging second part. also idk what's wrong with me when i've been like "i have read so much dark stuff, i want something feel-good for a change" and then i listen to a book about people dying under communist dictatorship. i guess i just can't stop being pulled in by the darkness
in chronological order, the first layer is an 18yo teen mom's PoV where she struggles with not wanting to be in a relationship with the baby's father but feels pressured to stay, then she falls in love with an eccentric artist girl from her school who lives in an ancient mansion and the two start a secret relationship.
the second layer is the teen mom's mother's PoV during/right after the girl and her bf both have disappeared during a pool party at the aforementioned mansion, and the police starts a lazy investigation into it but are mostly just "well maybe the teens got tired of being parents and ran away" and the search is eventually closed.
the third PoV is that of an outsider, a young woman and cozy crime novel author who moves to town after marrying a guy who starts as the local school's new headmaster, and she ends up doing some real life detective work trying to solve the disappeared couple's mystery. there are also the rich family's daughter's suspicious friends involved and whatever else
➕ i don't have a whole lot to say tbh, jewell's novels feel like a well oiled machine, every piece of the suspense puzzle is very calculated and neat and it just works. i also liked how nobody was a particularly good person here, everyone was a bit guilty and/or wrong. it wasn't a story of, like, one psychopath treating everyone else badly boohoo.
➕ bonus for girls kissing girls i guess
➖ i started this in a mood of craving more suspense mystery stories and ended it not feeling it anymore. i didn't find myself caring about the story much, i didn't care about the characters and what happened to them, i'm kinda done with these family-focused tragedies. i think the reason i tend to be more entertained by YA (and anime) is that nobody has babies and husbands. kinda at a point where i'd want something else from my books.
➖ this one also just rang a bit hollow with all the different PoVs in general, i would have preferred just a story about sophie the mystery book author who moves to the countryside and ends up solving a real mystery. now she and her story felt like just an afterthought plastered on top of thalula and scarlet and kim's more weighed story. which didn't really work for me because sophie was the one i was interested in
⭐ score: 3 -- so inoffensive that it got no flavour whatsoever. i think i'll put suspense stuff in the back burner for a bit now.
