The Wicker King

Recenzja po polsku i po angielsku:

🇵🇱:

Niekiedy historie, które czytamy są tak ciężkie, bolesne, ale jednocześnie pięknie, że nie umiemy ubrać w słowa swojej miłości i fascynacji. Moja pierwsza myśl po skończeniu “The Wicker King” była taka, że nie ma skali, której mojej wrażenia z lektury mogłyby podlegać. Byłam fizycznie wykończona, a psychicznie zniszczona. To nie chodzi o to, czy ta książka mi się podobała, czy też nie. Chodzi bowiem o to, jak wielkie wrażenia na mnie wywarła i jak wiele sprzecznych emocji we mnie wzbudziła.

🕊️Jest to historia Augusta i Jacka – siedemnastoletnich chłopców, którzy zostawieni przez dorosłych, zmuszeni zostają polegać na sobie nawzajem. Łączy ich przez to relacja wykraczająca poza zwykłą przyjaźń i chociaż stanowią odrębne byty, to nie umieją funkcjonować samodzielnie.

🍃Atmosfera tej książki jest niesamowita. Ciężka, mroczna, wypełniona bodźcami, które przytłaczają. Jesteśmy sukcesywnie zwodzeni, podejrzanie uspokajani, a następnie wrzucani w odmęty lodowatej wody. Nie jesteśmy w stanie złapać oddechu. Nie czujemy dna. Toniemy.

🥀Rozdziały są krótkie, często przerwane w momentach, kiedy jesteśmy na granicy irytacji i dziwnej fascynacji zachowaniem bohaterów. Narracja jest baśniowa i niezwykle płynna. Wprowadza nas w trans, podczas którego ślepo podążamy za bohaterami. Podglądamy ich w najbardziej intymnych sytuacjach, po czym czujemy wstyd.

☘️Relacja Augusta i Jacka to psychologiczna łamigłówka, której nie sposób rozwiązać. Autorka sukcesywnie pokazuje rozwój tej relacji, opartej na bezwarunkowym zaufaniu i miłości, która zakrawa na chorobę. To nałóg, z którego świadomie nie chcą się wyleczyć, a jedynie coraz głębiej się mu poddają.

Niesamowita, brutalna i niezwykła historia… Zostawiłam w niej swoją cząstkę, której nigdy nie zdołam już odebrać. Moje serce należy do tych chłopaków.

🇬🇧:

Sometimes the stories we read are so heavy, painful, but at the same time beautiful, that we can't put into words our love and fascination. My first thought after finishing "The Wicker King" was that there is no scale to which my reading impressions could be subjected. I was physically exhausted and mentally devastated. This is not about whether I liked the book or not. For it is about how much impression it made on me and how many conflicting emotions it aroused in me.

🕊️This is the story of August and Jack - seventeen-year-old boys who, left by adults, are forced to rely on each other. Through this they are united by a relationship that goes beyond mere friendship, and although they are separate entities, they do not know how to function independently.

🍃The atmosphere of this book is amazing. Heavy, dark, filled with stimuli that overwhelm. We are successively deceived, suspiciously reassured, and then thrown into the depths of icy water. We are unable to catch our breath. We can't feel the bottom. We are drowning.

🥀The chapters are short, often interrupted at moments when we are on the verge of irritation and strange fascination with the behavior of the characters. The narrative is fabulous and extremely fluid. It puts us into a trance, during which we blindly follow the characters. We peep at them in the most intimate situations, after which we feel ashamed.

☘️Relation August and Jack is a psychological puzzle that cannot be solved. The author successively shows the development of this relationship, based on unconditional trust and love, which turns into a disease. It is an addiction from which they consciously do not want to be cured, but only surrender to it more and more deeply.

An amazing, brutal and extraordinary story... I left my part in it, which I will never be able to take back. My heart belongs to these boys.

Recenzja po polsku i po angielsku:

🇵🇱:

Niekiedy historie, które czytamy są tak ciężkie, bolesne, ale jednocześnie pięknie, że nie umiemy ubrać w słowa swojej miłości i fascynacji. Moja pierwsza myśl po skończeniu “The Wicker King” była taka, że nie ma skali, której mojej wrażenia z lektury mogłyby podlegać. Byłam fizycznie wykończona, a psychicznie zniszczona. To nie...

Things I loved about this:

» the characters. August & Jack are utterly lovable (and spoiler alert: in love),but also “problematique”, by which I mean they both struggle with their mental health, while not getting any help from adults around them. Their relationship was one of the most intense ones I have ever read about & there are no clean lines there, but that just makes it so much more interesting. If you thought Gansey & Ronan’s friendship was exciting (the “While I’m gone, dream me the world” bit!!!),you are gonna LOVE this. (And realise what it was you found missing in TRC.)

» the atmosphere. The book literally starts with the boys being arrested for committing arson & then we get to see their journey toward that point and its fallout. And, exactly like you can imagine, this means that the story starts dark and only gets darker & darker & more creepy. It crawls under your skin, it catches your breath. It also wouldn’t probably be received by the reader in such a vivid & harsh way, if it wasn’t for the two main characters and the fact that’s clear from the very beginning: that they would both die for each other, gladly. Because with that kind of a relationship to read about, it’s really hard not to care about the characters yourself.

» the setting. It’s marketed as a psychological thriller and yes, that’s pretty much what you’re getting yourself into. But there’s also this whole fantasy world within the story and when you’re not thinking about how fucked up it is that it’s here - it’s truly amazing. It’s not some golden magical kingdom you might be thinking about, though. It’s a kingdom, alright, but a dark one, full of thorny branches, endless hungry crows & champions who look like your friends, but with dead hollow eyes. This world, like everything in this story, gets darker & more dangerous with every turned page and leaves you wishing for a good night’s sleep.

» the grand scheme of things. I mentioned there are some questionable elements in the boys’ relationship. Those make everything that much more intense & they rip your heart out, but also: nothing about them is really healthy. See, the thing about The Wicker King is, though, that it acknowledges that. Throughout the book, in some small yet clearly visible ways, but also - the whole ending is a testament to that. The boys get better, they finally know what’s going on & they know they have to break the cycle.

» the side characters. This is connected to the previous point. Because my favourite part about them - all of them beautiful teens!! - is that they are real friends. They are all trying very hard to help August & Jack, to keep them in check & not to let them run wild. To set some reasonable boundaries.

» the writing. It kind of seems almost irresponsible to make a whole separate point just about this when in truth - the writing holds the story together. It fits perfectly into the eerie scenes it describes, making them more poignant & making sense of them. Kayla’s style is beautiful in this simple & yet powerful way that we’re used to finding in poetry, not in prose. I think the shortness of the chapters helps with that aspect as well but mostly, it’s this amazing attention to detail. With a style that’s first of all haunting, Kayla makes the reader focus on just the emotions she needs (and that we’d rather not think about).

» the titles of chapters. I must admit I was a little put out & a little confused by how short the chapters are at first. That feeling went away quickly - this trick works out fabulously here, actually. But the titles themselves, they’re sometimes very straightforward (just a name or a place or a one-word description) & sometimes they make no sense at all. Until you finish the chapter and then the title puts the scene in a completely new perspective & makes it twice as painful. (I’m still thinking about “Communion” days later…)

The Wicker King is a lyrical fall down a rabbit hole. It’s terrifying, but won’t let you rest until you reach the very end. And just when you’re thinking you won’t ever wake up from the nightmare again, that you’re stuck in this suffocating prison of prickles & thorns forever - it turns the light back on.

Things I loved about this:

» the characters. August & Jack are utterly lovable (and spoiler alert: in love),but also “problematique”, by which I mean they both struggle with their mental health, while not getting any help from adults around them. Their relationship was one of the most intense ones I have ever read about & there are no clean lines there, but that just...