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Lapvona cover art

Lapvona

By: Ottessa Moshfegh
Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
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Summary

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

What listeners say about Lapvona

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    1 out of 5 stars

Too ambitious. Takes bleak to a whole new level.

As a huge fan of Ottesssa Moshfegh, I couldn't wait to read this book! In previous novels I adored her fascination with the macabre & gruesome. Her characters, whilst flawed are always captivating.

However, Lapvona is too ambitious (for me), although I challenge even the most depraved person to enjoy it.

All of the characters in this novel are debauched & evil (for want of a better word). Which might be intriguing, except it completely distracts from any source of plot. Rather than entertaining, the novel is incredibly bleak & at times uncomfortable - in one chapter a character is made to eat a grape that's been up another characters arse - in another, a man graphically sexually assaults his 'wife,' a woman who previously lost her tongue to abuse & was impregnated by her brother.
The whole thing is packed with extreme, religious dogma, which although gives characters an 'excuse' for their actions... doesn't make it easier to read.

I grew so weary of reading about endless abuse (without any obvious purpose, except to shock), that I gave up 60% of the way through.

If you're giving this novel a go, brace yourself!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Something didn't "click"

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

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Boring and slow

I’ve never not finished a book but I genuinely could not get through this, this is also my first negative review on here, it was boring and slow I could not get into it, as someone who reads a lot of disturbing stuff and horror it just didn’t interest me, maybe it will be someone’s cup of tea but I’m gutted I wasted a credit on it

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars

just really boring

Take some advice from a stranger on the Internet, if you are thinking about listening to this, consider watching some paint dry, go and pick your toenails or try and deliberately give yourself a paper cut in between your thumb and forefinger. painfully dull in all respects.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

👁⚔️🐑

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

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Captivating

I don't think the categories really do this justice; all fiction is a kind of fantasy and this is like a dark fairy tale. A story one makes up of a small world with simple elements, just here populated with sometimes dark detail, especially when contrasted with the normal. It is not horror or superficial or obvious, but illuminates as light through the crack in a little opened door, what is in our dark minds.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A different story, but nothing exceptional.

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

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The right kind of twisted!

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!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very disturbing on just about every level

I listen this on a recommendation from historian Dan Jones

Strap in - because it is quite a ride!

From the initial chapters you may think it is a gritty rendering of medieval misery but it quickly develops into a horrific nightmare that is as bizarre as it is disturbing

Great performance from the narrator and author who delivers the horror as if she is serving up Sunday lunch

If memorable/unforgettable is the mark of a great story Ms Moshfegh certainly delivers

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Mixed feelings

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.

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1 person found this helpful