Nutshell (original 2016; udgave 2016)

I have to say, that blurb does sound sort of interesting, doesn't it? Something a bit different and unique. Something original.
But I found it quite an irritating read to be honest. The narrator, the baby in the womb, was just so erudite and knew so much about the world at large that I was constantly wondering where he got his information from. Yes, yes he listens to innumerable podcasts about so many different topics, but still. That irritated me.
Also the whole murder plot was so stupid and ridiculous. The characters were irritating and the whole book felt like a clever short story that had been stretched out too far.
I guess you could say that this book did very little for me.
Some of the writing is quite wonderful, but for me personally as a reader, clever writing only gets you so far. I want characters and plot. This had a plot, Hamlet in the womb, but it was half-arsed. It had characters, but they were thinly drawn, after all our narrator could only reveal what he overheard. Or what he imagined, and those imaginings were really really annoying to me, why do I care what an annoying character makes up? It felt like the author was trying to broaden the viewpoint of his foetus while still having him inside the womb. Did not work for me. ( )

There are still some parts that are Freudian silly, but this had some genuinely interesting, if confining, concepts. A solid 3.5 stars from me. ( )

When I heard that the narrator of Nutshell was an unborn fetus, I had to read it. The fetus is quite an erudite little fellow, having absorbed much knowledge from the podcasts his mother listens to. Accordingly, his first person voice is mature, it’s not like reading someone talking in baby talk.

The fetus is almost full-term when he figures out that his mother and uncle are having an affair and are planning to kill his father. He loves his mother but his loves father as well. He must try and find a way to put a stop to his mother and uncle’s plot. But how can he do that from inside his mother’s belly?

This is a very short book so it’s hard to say more about it without giving anything away. It’s definitely worth the read to see how the author accomplishes the unusual concept of a book told from a fetus’s point of view. Recommended. ( )

It's not enough to write competently at this stage of one's career. The plot is unoriginal, the fetal perspective is absurd, and to make matters worse, the tone is pretentious. Expected much more. ( )

Das Buch hat vor allem eine coole Ausgangsidee: Ein ungeborenes Kind schildert die Wirrungen um seine Eltern, denn seine Mutter hat einen Liebhaber und plant mit diesem gemeinsam den Ehemann und Vater des Kindes zu ermorden. Ich fand das Buch trotz der grausamen Geschichte amüsant und kurzweilig, was v.a. an der altklugen Art des Erzähler-Kindes liegt. Da ich das Buch in Italien gelesen habe, mochte ich die treffende Begründung, warum man in diesem Land geboren werden möchte: Wegen des Essens und des von der Sonne beschienen Verfalls. ( )