"I feel stupid when I pray" - "Anyone", Demi Lovato (Introductory quote of the book)

"...Marek was a little pleased that he was bleeding and that surely the broken bucket would be reason enough for Jude to give him a sound beating when he got home. Pain was good, Marek felt. It brought him closer to his father's love and pity ... Marek thought, I deserve this hardship. He lived for hardship. It gave him cause to prove himself superior to his mortal suffering."

What an interesting book to reflect on, I think this specific book poses a real challenge for reviewers regarding objectivity/subjectivity. Of course, all reviews are subjective, but different reviewers may allow "objective" elements (prose, structure, pacing) to weigh more heavily on their rating of book than subjective (overall enjoyment).

For this book, I don't think it's controversial to say that the more "objective" elements were very strong. The writing was straightforward but beautiful. The pacing was very interesting: the story beats hit exactly as they should, but it was still an overall unique story. And reflecting back on the story as a whole, it was an interesting - almost slice of life, medieval story following a young boy in a small village.

But the "subjective" elements... oh my god. This book was vile. It was disgusting. Horrific acts of depravity paired with the implication of "that's just how it was back then" painted an extremely grim picture of the times. None of the characters were good people, some being comically terrible. Reading this was not enjoyable. It was a good story, but not an enjoyable story. And I think that's where the difficulty is with rating this book. Thankfully, the really disgusting elements were fairly isolated into the second of the 4ish acts of the book, but that's not to say the whole book wasn't filled with depraved themes and people.

Maybe I'll feel different the longer I sit on the story, but I think I actually really liked this. It was "refreshing" to consume media around that time period that isn't painted in whimsy and fantasy, and the commentary about piety was often deeply funny. Would I recommend this? Not widely, no. But I did like it.