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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Surrey Libraries.
Oct 28, 2018ppeau rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I wanted to space out reading this book, but I read it all in one sitting! The main character Jakub struggles with his father's wrongdoings as a communist informer, separation from a lover, and more. The "spider" presents an interesting view on Jakub's dilemma, which translates well into issues that a lot of us humans have. While it might get a bit intensive for the average reader, the story feels almost like a Czech story translated into English, as you have things such as the Velvet Revolution, Jan Hus, dechovka, and much much more treated as normal, common knowledge. Just looking up what a couple of these things were were very interesting and you get to know a bit more about Czech culture! The book isn't perfect, however as I feel that after the first half more drastic things occur that don't fit in completely with the rest of the book, but the ending while not perfect does make up for it in my opinion. The author goes delves a bit too much into the sexual tones, to the point where it can be uncomfortable to read how graphic it gets. Regardless, those scenes tend to be short and the author was trying to convey the longing the protagonist had and don't ruin the whole book!