Review: Brother by Marina Vivancos
Erratic's review: 5 stars
What a beautifully emotional little book. The longing these two had for each other came through on every page. There is a certain feeling the summer between college years gives where you're an adult but still growing and the tangle of the past, family, new friends, and new experiences all come together. The vibe of long hot days spent by the water. Somehow this short book about incest between twin brothers captured summer perfectly. Even the length of the book worked since it was as fleeting as one of those college summers. I loved it 5 stars rounded down.
Vivancos can pack a lot of emotion into a small package, but even then,
there's a limit. This one is just too short to pull it off. Every time I
was just getting pulled into a scene, into the emotions, it would end
or change. They were always just a bit short of complete and it was
intensely frustrating.
This did have some very emotional moments -
I loved the hotel scene! I wish more of the story had been like that,
all those intense emotions and angst and feels. It just needs more time
to breathe.
The story felt like it was picking up speed
as I read along, getting rushed at the end. It lost its impact because
of that. I think their relationship was supposed to have
this-was-inevitable vibes, but I never quite felt that. The possessive
you-belong-only-to-me attitude is great, I love it, but it just didn't
quite work for me here...because again, this was too short to develop
the base for that. Instead of communicating the deep need, years of pent
up emotions, and angst between them, and the possessiveness being
doubled by the twin bond, it just felt a little demanding. Not very
different from a non-twin pairing. So close.
The end I found quite abrupt as well. Their connection, once they came together, felt a little glossed over.
Overall, this was almost
amazing. I don't know why it was so short. A little bit more time to
make the scenes complete and it could have been a 5 star. I know
Vivancos can do the emotions, there's evidence of that here even, but
you still need page time to build that angst in.
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