I will give any book a few hours, but one third of the way through Juja, I am sadly giving up. This is the second book in 2 years that I decided will never be worth my time to finish. I tried it for half an hour when I was tired and gave it another shot from the beginning. I gave it 0ver 2 hours that time, to the 1/3 mark. It was unintelligible and I am a fan of time shifts and character shifts. I like quirky books and experimental books. This one had totally unlikeable characters and never pulled together into anything coherent. By this point in a book, even if I don't love it, I should get it or still be motivated to get it soon. Not this one.

I had to give up on this about 11% through the audiobook. Perhaps it is one of those books that you can only truly appreciate once you have gotten through most or the whole thing. But I honestly just found myself getting so lost. I didn't know what was going on or which character's perspective I was experiencing the story through. I wonder if it would have been different to read it and not listen to it?
I think the audiobook version would have benefitted greatly from having different narrators voice the different perspectives. As it is right now, everything became muddled together and I couldn't keep up.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the audio version of this book.


The description of this book had me so interested in reading it, but it was very dark and I struggled with it.

Firstly, the positives. There is no doubt that Nino Haratischvili is a talented and beautiful writer. (I think a different story told would have been incredible)That coupled with the narration which was also stellar could have made for an amazing experience.

Although you anticipate a fairly good amount of depression, death, and darkness in a book about the suicides of young women, I couldn’t handle some of the sexual violence and graphic images it left in my head. The language was a bit over the top as well. It was difficult to connect and feel for any of the characters because as you got to know one and get into their story right away you were in another decade learning about someone else’s tragic life and story. It felt very complex and confusing and all over the place. And there was not a drop of hope or joy to be found in this book whatsoever. Just 100% dread starting in the first 5 minutes- being “f**ked into life”. Just not the book for me.

Juja has some incredibly beautiful writing, but unfortunately the overarching plot and thematic movements of the characters fell short for me. I was just left feeling underwhelmed, and frankly a little frustrated by the events in the last 15% of the novel. I am interested to read more of the author's work, as the writing was beautiful.

I received the audiobook ARC through Netgalley, and the narrator was excellent with the diverse accents at play but there was a lot of playback issues that impacted my experience unfortunately.

I love the narration. It is so beautiful. I did not like the brother character. In fact I hated him so intensely I had to stop listening. I tried to get back into it a few times but I am clearly too sensitive for this.

In the book juja by Nina Hera Tishvillie I think the story and ultimate meaning was lost in translation. They didn’t even mention a book until a third of the way into it in the first third is just the author barraging you with all these characters the first whole chapter sounded like IDK poetry? I found most of these characters very very unlikable and I didn’t route for any not only because they were unlikable but because I didn’t know what we were rooting for. I was looking for a book about females who read someone’s left behind writings and have issues of their own but that is not at all in any way shape or form or fashion what you get with this book. I would love to give you a brief summary but I have no clue what this book is about it is confusing and although there were parts I understood 100% I just don’t know how they’re related to the other parts of the book and there were some characters we read about and then never heard from them again. So needless to say I did not like this book nor can I recommend it because I said I don’t know what it’s about. I want to thank Dreamscape media for my free ARC via NetGalley please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

What a sad, strange story.

Juja is a story about mental health, relationships, literature, and connectedness. Is a challenging story that isn’t always very easy to get through but the payoff is the beautiful writing itself. I feel like this is the type of book that could mean something different to you each time you read it but that also changes you as you read it. It leaves you feeling both empty and hopeful. It leaves you asking questions.

Juja
by Nino Haratischvili
Narrated by Helen Day

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction
Format: audiobook 🎧
Publication date: 7th May 2024

🌟: 2/5

Description
“In 1953, a teenage girl, Jeanne Saré, jumps in front of a train at the Gare du Nord station. She leaves behind writings that to some are unreadable, but to others tell universal, unspoken truths about the lives and struggles of women. When published in the 1970s, her work triggers a rash of copycat suicides. It is hastily withdrawn from sale and eventually forgotten about.
Then, in 2004, two women from opposite corners of the globe—Amsterdam and Sydney—rediscover Jeanne Saré’s book and set out to discover who the author was and what happened to her.
Women across the ages have attached their own stories to Saré’s, often with devastating results, but the truth about her may be even stranger than the fictions they have invented.”

I really wanted to like this book, the premise sounded so interesting but I just really struggled with it. I intensely disliked some of the characters and for a book about women and womanhood not connecting to any of the characters was a deal breaker for me.

The writing style was good and the narration was nice too but I just couldn’t cope with the story. The plot felt meandering and very difficult to follow, which added to my not caring about the lives or deaths of these women. Honestly I just wanted to get to the end, which I did but it left me feeling nothing but relief.

I started listening to this audio-book but found it difficult to connect with. Unfortunately, it wasn't my cup of tea.Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, but I've decided not to finish this book.