I found this to be an interesting thought exercise about an internal conflict, but while skimming I see a lot of reviews for a very different book. As with the other dark and bleak novellas I've read recently, my mood determines whether I can enjoy it or hate it. I enjoyed this one. ( )

"A life devoted to looking after a shabby, sickly sister out in the wilds"
By sally tarbox on 7 April 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Some of the Peirene novellas are compulsive reading, unputdownable...this isn't one of them, and I struggled through the 180 pages for well over a week.
Set in the remote North of Norway, it's narrated by a middle-aged disabled woman. Confined to the house, she is completely dependant on her elder sister, Ragna, for absolutely everything. Ragna is resentful, vengeful... but the narrator is no saintly invalid, as she spies on Ragna, screams abuse, tries to wrest back some power to herself, whether through the spells she casts, her writings, her actions. And as Ragna embarks on a relationship with a man she's met, her sister feels more vulnerable than ever...
It's vivid, it brims with bile and fury...but I have to say it was with relief that I reached the last page. Maybe *2.5 ( )