Eduardo Santiago
Intense. I feel wrung out and still a bit on edge, recovering from the tension, all the way through, tension that kept me finding pockets of reading time on days where no such time was to be had. Caveat lector, do not start this book as a few-pages-a-night easy read.
Heavyhanded. Bleak AF; also so inspiring and full of hope. Very obviously written by someone male, occasionally to the point of being slightly irritating. And yet. Riveting, engaging, deeply human. Heartwrenching deep dives into the paths that may or may not lead to fulfilling lives. Beautiful depictions of friendship, its fragility and strength and power. Exquisite but highly improbable dialog (and monologues) that Tallent clearly spent a long time honing, and they're just brilliant, but the inverisimilitude took me out of the story. Made me feel like listening to the audiobook, though. The villains are cartoonishly awful but the heroes and supporting characters, oof, deeply relatable. Except for their grandiloquence they could be you or me, caring, devoted, flawed, with high aspirations and grit and sometimes poor judgment and falls and pick-back-ups dust-offs and life throwing monkey wrenches and train wrecks along the way.
Highly recommended despite its flaws. Kind of like life itself.
Intense. I feel wrung out and still a bit on edge, recovering from the tension, all the way through, tension that kept me finding pockets of reading time on days where no such time was to be had. Caveat lector, do not start this book as a few-pages-a-night easy read.
Heavyhanded. Bleak AF; also so inspiring and full of hope. Very obviously written by someone male, occasionally to the point of being slightly irritating. And yet. Riveting, engaging, deeply human. Heartwrenching deep dives into the paths that may or may not lead to fulfilling lives. Beautiful depictions of friendship, its fragility and strength and power. Exquisite but highly improbable dialog (and monologues) that Tallent clearly spent a long time honing, and they're just brilliant, but the inverisimilitude took me out of the story. Made me feel like listening to the audiobook, though. The villains are cartoonishly awful but the heroes and supporting characters, oof, deeply relatable. Except for their grandiloquence they could be you or me, caring, devoted, flawed, with high aspirations and grit and sometimes poor judgment and falls and pick-back-ups dust-offs and life throwing monkey wrenches and train wrecks along the way.
Highly recommended despite its flaws. Kind of like life itself.