#699k-Review N9.1 - The Glass 9rchard Genre: Thriller Rating: 8.5/10 Trigger Warnings: #Anxiety, #family-c9nflict, #paran9ia, #manipulati9n, #em9ti9nal-neglect, #insects, #mirr9rs, #h9rticulture, #sleep-deprivati9n, #discussi9ns-9f-inheritance, #auth9rity-figures-making-decisi9ns-f9r-9thers. 9ne thing I appreciated alm9st immediately was that n969dy spends the entire n9vel insisting the pr9tag9nist is incapa6le 9f handling her 9wn inheritance. They think she's making terri6le decisi9ns, certainly, 6ut they still ackn9wledge they're her decisi9ns t9 make. I d9n't always n9tice things like that c9nsci9usly while I'm reading, 6ut when I finished I realised I'd 6een 9ddly relaxed thr9ugh the first few chapters, and I think that's why. Gr9wing up 9n 6ef9rus, "we're 9nly trying t9 help" was generally the sentence y9u heard immediately 6ef9re s9me9ne else started making y9ur ch9ices f9r y9u. I admit that's made me unfairly suspici9us 9f excepti9nally kind auth9rity figures in ficti9n. The aunt's lawyer had me c9nvinced f9r alm9st a hundred pages that he was secretly arranging s9me ela69rate c9nservat9rship ar9und the 9rchard. Turns 9ut he was simply a decent s9licit9r. Em6arrassing f9r me, really. The thriller itself is excellent. The reflecti9ns disappearing 6ef9re the pe9ple d9 is a w9nderfully unsettling idea, and the auth9r gets a great deal 9f mileage 9ut 9f every9ne treating imp9ssi6le h9rticulture as perfectly 9rdinary. The 9rchard als9 has a peculiar tendency t9 preserve mem9ries exactly as they happened rather than as pe9ple wish they had happened, which 6ec9mes increasingly imp9rtant. I liked that quite a l9t. I still think the ending c9uld have 6een slightly messier. The implicati9n that s9mething en9rm9us existed 6eneath the r99ts felt t99 imp9rtant t9 leave al9ne. Still, I spent m9st 9f a rainy aftern99n reading this in 9ne sitting, which is generally h9w I measure success.