Lapvona cover art

Lapvona

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Lapvona

By: Ottessa Moshfegh
Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

In the land of Lapvona, the lord of the land Villiam is cheating the local villagers of their food, their water, their livelihoods. Grotesque and ridiculous, he marries the pregnant and tongueless ex-nun Agata, whom he believes will make him God, and his son will be the second Christ.

It's a land of murder, cannibalism, incest and rape. Despite all of the characters' individual inadequacies and madness, you find yourself completely engrossed in each character's fate, be it Marek, Jude, Agata, Villiam, Lispeth, Ina, Father Barnabas. It's an anti-fairytale within a fairytale—maybe this is what hell on earth looks like? Is it an indictment of humanity, of religion, of grotesque despots?

An original work of brilliance—singular, funny, horrifying and entertaining in equal measure.

©2022 Ottessa Moshfegh (P)2022 Penguin Audio Dark Fantasy Dark Humour Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Magic Scary Comedy

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All stars
Most relevant  
This was gorgeously read by Moshfegh.

The grape scene is the tamest of them all — y’all need to reflect on why you find it worse than any of the others.

Part two is better than part one. Interesting, funny, depraved, and an apt satire of the madness of our planet.

They could never make me hate you, Ottessa.

Stunning, efficient, brutal, fantastic (don’t believe the naysayers)

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The first half of this book had me hooked but then it just fell apart for me. It even felt as though the dialogue style completely changed. Maybe that was intentional. Narration was great though.

Mixed feelings

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The first half of this book is honestly a spectacular treat of macabre and the second half is a wade through dull repetition. I did overall love it though.

A book of two halves

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gross, weird, slow, and brimming with juvenile cruelty - i devoured this in a day and a half. absolutely loved it.

👁⚔️🐑

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A different story, but nothing exceptional. All I can do is sit on the fence really.

A different story, but nothing exceptional.

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Firstly let me say it's not as disgusting as most of these reviews make out, there is quite a lot of incest and abuse, a bit of cannibalism, and some witchcraft, so if that's not your bag move on...

But IF you can get over that or are like me dead on the inside and not easily shocked then elements of the book are actually quite funny in a farcically tragic ''Voltaire'' kind of way.

I think a lot of people gave up halfway, and to be fair most of the abuse is in the first half of the book, but IMO that's just the build-up to the tragic comedy, or maybe I'm just a sick puppy.

Horrible (but entertaining) beginning, a Farcicle middle, abrupt ending. 4 stars.

It's a Farce not a Horror...

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It dives into perversions of humans, the reality of the social classes and religions along side magical events. The narrator is just what the story needs, she did write it after all!

The right kind of twisted!

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Whilst all great Fairy Stories have a moral story to tell. Good vs Evil. This feels like a fairy tale for our age - all characters are flawed, pain, layered upon pain, which navigates their actions. And maybe that's the point. But in terms of telling a story, it leaves you crying out for an explanation to all it all - if not a happy ever after

Fairy Tale runs out of steam

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I mean the story starts with some grossish descriptions, and some scenes are gruesome but if you've listened to many a horror or dark thriller story it won't shock you. story is ok, little un eventful and meandering but fine - three stars for this reason, the atmosphere was cool to start with kind of grim mock mediaeval but then took a turn for a bit dull with smatterings of cannibal and kind of witchy business. interesting but not shocking if you're at all familiar with any darker horror stories or fiction which leans into the slimy side of human nature.

not gross for those familiar with horror stories

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I honestly think this needs a different narrator. It lacked emotion. So the gross bits were just gross and I couldn't care about any character out of total indifference. A great narrator would change that.For once, I gave up and wasn't bothered that I did

Something didn't "click"

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