Uno di questi giorni è successo che girovagando su Internet mi sono imbattuta in questo libro post-apocalittico. Il titolo ha stuzzicato i miei neuroni, così mi sono letta la trama. Il passo successivo è stato: devo leggerlo. Una delle mie migliori decisioni di lettura mai prese.

In generale, è stato un cazzotto continuo nello stomaco. Pensate che Hunger Games sia brutale? Robetta in confronto a Il libro segreto delle cose sacre, che più che mostrarci massacri, ci scuote nelle nostre fondamenta.

La trama, così come lo stile, è estremamente semplice, in parte prevedibile, ma si tratta della semplicità che deriva dalla consapevolezza di non aver bisogno di orpelli per trasmettere il proprio messaggio.

La protagonista, una dodicenne di nome Aurora - Rory, come la chiamano -, ci racconta gli eventi in prima persona ed è forse uno dei personaggi meno simpatici di cui abbia letto. Invidiosa, egoista, arrogante: il tipo di personaggio che, se ve lo trovaste davanti, non esitereste a prendere a schiaffi per tutto quello che dice. Eppure... eppure vi troverete vostro malgrado ad ammirarne la forza, perché, quando tutte cederanno, il suo orgoglio la porterà a puntare i piedi - anche dopo aver perso tutto.

C'è davvero tanto in questo romanzo, tanti spunti di riflessione disseminati qua e là, pronti ad attecchire nella mente del lettore e a farlo riflettere. La simbologia di Sole-Luna e Terra-Mare darà modo all'autore di affrontare il tema del rapporto tra i sessi senza mai scadere nella banalità e colpendo duro. Un libro da leggere assolutamente se amate il genere distopico. ( )

I honestly don't know what to make of this book. I can't even really tell if I liked it.
It was certainly a slow read, and I was annoyed many times throughout, but I kept reading, so that has to mean it kept my interest ... right? ( )

This book went so many places I was not expecting (that’s a good thing, too many books are predictable). At first it was pretty funny, told from the limited point of view of a sheltered and spoiled 12-year-old Aurora. She was very believable in her self-important brattiness… not a very sympathetic character, but I kept reading because I thought she was going to get her comeuppance with the arrival of the new girl Willa. (How *dare* she be named Seer instead of me!). I agree with other reviewers that the church, the men, the male-female relationships are overly simplistic… but you have to remember who is telling this story and how limited her understanding of the world is. I actually like dramatic irony.

Wow, the book takes a very grim turn and Aurora’s entire life is changed in ways I never could have imagined at the beginning. She changes and grows up a bit, but there is no miraculous transformation of her character - which would have been totally unbelievable – she’s a bit of a brat until the bitter end. Reminded me a teensy bit of the movie “Saved” ( I am filled with Christ’s love!! You’re just jealous!) and a bit of the self-righteous Tracy Flick from “Election” by Tom Perrotta (by the way, if you haven’t read this, run out RIGHT NOW and get a copy).
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Krol has a reputation as a brilliant, reclusive author, who isn't read by many but his few constitute a cult following. I won't be joining the cult: this book sucked.

Rory is living in, essentially a convent of moon-worshipping women, who rule over a valley in a post-apocalyptic world. The apocalypse, in this case, was a large asteroid hitting the moon sometime in our near future, a couple hundred years past for Rory. The asteroid knocked the moon out of its proper orbit, putting it on a much more eccentric elliptical route around the earth in which it passes very close every seven days (I take this to mean that the 'month' is now two weeks long). About halfway through the book, the Earth, which took heavy damage from all the debris (hence, destruction of civilization), and has been somewhat unsteady in its orbit for some time, suddenly drops over on its side so that the North pole faces the sun., some sort of delayed effect of the centuries-earlier impact. Yeah, right.

This was not the only yeah-right moment in the book. The women who founded this colony were people of our near future, but I can't really imagine people of our near future believing these things (our narrator, Rory, is in charge of writing the name “Selene” repeatedly to keep the moon in the sky – seriously?). This village in the mountains and a fishing village several days away appear to contain the only remaining people, and the stories from the time of the asteroid don't mention any other survivors, either. Again, yeah, right.

Krol seems to be given a lot of credit for insight into the human condition, and human responses to extreme situations, but I didn't find anything terribly insightful or original here in that respect.

The most original part of the book is that it's told through the voice of Rory, an egotistical, fanatical, twelve-year-old girl. Downside: he's captured her voice really quite well, so you have to suffer through her narration throughout the story (she seems to start growing up about halfway through, but quickly reverts). I'm really glad that I wasn't much of a diary-writer at that age.
There's really nothing to recommend this – if you want post-apocalyptic fiction, go read Atwood, or Orwell, or... ( )

Una storia che non nego sia originale, ma con personaggi esasperanti, che vorresti schiaffeggiare dall'inizio alla fine del romanzo. A mio modo di vedere l'unico capolavoro di Krol è il suo primo romanzo, Callisto, dove ironia e scene surreali la fanno da padrone. ( )