I have complaints about what used to be my favorite novel

Earlier today a thought popped into my head, out of nowhere, as thoughts sometimes do. It was, “Huh, remember how much you loved Till We Have Faces? When’s the last time you thought of that stupid book.” The thought was immediately followed by another one, which was, “Oh shit, don’t dismiss Till We Have Faces just like that. You need to remember you used to love that book, nay, you used to say it was your favorite book, because I’m pretty sure it’s the answer to a few of your password recovery questions.”

And so I thought about Till We Have Faces a little longer than I would have otherwise, on the off-chance I forget a password.

One thing I remembered is how I tried to reread Till We Have Faces 2 years ago before utterly giving up about 3 chapters in. I think I was having trouble reading any book at that time though. I’ll not hold that against it.

Another thing I remembered is the reason I tried to reread it, which is that I was pretty certain that the book was not as good as I remembered it being. I had a friend who trash-talked it once and I wasn’t able to argue back. My favorite book, mind you. I just listened to her and thought, “Oh…”

I can be impressionable though.

Then I started to look online for a chapter-by-chapter critique of Till We Have Faces and I couldn’t find one. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough. If they’re out there they’re sure to be rare, because like, fucking no one has read this book, even among people who claim to like CS Lewis’s fiction.

For instance, Lev Grossman wrote a series I absolutely adore called The Magicians which spoofs on Narnia quite a bit, because he loved The Chronicles of Narnia as a kid but grew up realizing they were a bit problematic? But still awesome? I bet even he hasn’t read this book. And he was a book critic for TIME magazine.

I really want a recap of this book. So I’m just going to write it.

I’m going to form my own opinions on this, dammit! Maybe it will be chapter-by-chapter, maybe in chunks, I don’t know.

This is all to say this blog is going to get really boring for most of you.

But I will mark the potholes so you know to avoid them.

Things that are interesting about Till We Have Faces:

1. CS Lewis, who JK Rowling famously criticized for doing his female characters a disservice, is writing 1st person female.
2. The female character is SUPER UGLY. I’m going to do an Ugly Count, in fact, of how many times we’re reminded that she’s ugly. I’m guessing like…100 times.
3. It’s a book written by a Christian about the unfairness of Christianity.
4. Of all the works of fiction CS Lewis wrote, this is his favorite.
5. I’m sure it won’t be a miserable read, whatever happens.

You should read along! We could discuss it in the comments.