Gio'
Loved it! The second book in the trilogy does not disappoint. Full of energy and interesting characters and a plot that has just the right amount of complexity to keep you engaged without losing track of what's what and who's who. There are a couple of forced coincidences but I forgive them because of the overall dynamism of the book. When I reached the end I was a little sad, I would have loved it if the book lasted just a little bit longer...
Closer to 3.5 stars. All along this felt like a book that I would have loved in my twenties, but now in my forties is just cute. There is some originality but overall, I don't think I'll remember much of this book in a year or two. The characters are not that deep and the traits are often over the top. Also, I don't know if it is because of cultural differences or just that the book was written a while ago, the depiction of women always there to please the dominating man doesn't feel right anymore. On the plus side, I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was top notch.
I really liked this short book. It is written in a Richard Bachman style and pretty quickly it brought me back 25-30 years to all the hours spent on my bed reading SK books during high school and college. Yes, as a constant reader I felt that this book has been a gift to me for being faithful for so long to SK. I'm always amazed of how many styles SK can write in and elevation is a pretty tight exercise. The book is short, the idea is simple but stays with you and the social aspect quite relevant without being preachy. Thank you Stevie for this good couple of days of elevation.
boh... I have not found much special in this book. The premise is strong, but that's just what this amounts to. A book with good premises and no development. It goes in burst, just when you're hoping for something to happen, for the book to find his rhythm, it goes back to endless accounts of nothing. The prose is good, but overall I'm disappointed.
Good book. It actually started super strong and the first third of the book is a true superlative page turner. Then the book settles in a more standard SK rhythm that is elegant and enjoyable, with nice interesting well fleshed out characters. The story itself is pretty interesting but it is the intro and the build up that are truly masterful. 4.5 stars from me.
I call this a missed opportunity. The first half of the book is brisk and interesting, but the book slumps massively towards the middle and reading it became a chore, bad rhythm, bad writing, lot of repetition. Luckily the story slowly climbs back to be decent and deliver a decent ending, but overall I'm disappointed. It feels like the rewrite wasn't rigorous enough and the book ended up not as tight as it should have been.
The story is cool and I'm 100% on board with the social message. It just felt like I was reading an initial version of the book and not a finished product...
While this book's story is historically and socially interesting, I didn't think it was well written at all. The excessive levity of the tone fails in the attempt of sophisticated humor and instead removes complexity and empathy from the characters. I feel like the author decided to use a formula that could have worked for a few pages/chapters and instead he stuck with it for the entire book making the book itself feel a little fake and an immature exercise of style. I did enjoy learning more about Indian society, so I powered through it, but strictly in terms of book quality, it was not worth finishing reading it.
So... SK really threw a curve ball for this final chapter of the trilogy. Instead of finishing with another detective story, He took a totally different direction and brought in more familiar SK themes. I honestly would have preferred for him to stay closer in story style to the first to books, but I guess he followed story and that's where it went. Anyway, there are still many things to like: the writing style is the same dry detective story style that I enjoyed in the first two books, the characters are now fully mature and the story is creative enough. Good enjoyable book, just not one of major points in his amazing bibliography.
Cool story! Like for the first book, I like the dry style hat SK has decided to use for this book, very fitting to the Bill Hodges character. My rating was more about 3.5 stars, but... it was 1AM and I was very tired and still I could not put the book down until I finished it, this kind of reading pleasure must be worth 4 stars. Also, the audiobook reading from Will Patton is top notch.
What a huge disappointment and a sad follow up to the magnificent Kite Runner. This book is totally made up of cliches and plot turns from the worst soap operas. Why oh why? Very little can be saved, but IMHO the book clings to two stars because I learned more about Afghan history and women conditions. It is too bad that these important aspects are packaged into this weak and trivial novel.
What a read. I approached this book with fear, given the length. As an audiobook it is a massive 52 hours record (but I listened to it at 1.8X speed, still massively long). But I was soon captured by the settings and the story and the epic feeling of it all. This is a brilliant book that has to be savored. It was initially published as a serial and so it has to be enjoyed as long sequence of intense episodes. I'm so happy that I decided to read this!
Very interesting! SK tackles a more conventional thriller and the result is a tightly written, very tense and elegant book. There are some of his signature ingredients (the depth of the characters, the family issues, etc...) but overall, the style is more contained. It could have been written easily by Lee Child or James Patterson. Well done with this exercise SK. You pulled it off!
The main question is: is there really a need for a book like this? In my opinion the answer is no. When similar themes have been brought up much better by powerful real life accounts from Primo Levi, Ann Frank, Elie Weisel, this fictional novel seems pretty thin. Yes, it does have a change in perspective from other books, but that's not enough to really add to the conversation. The writing is ok. I'm undecided between 2 and 3 stars. In going with two just because of the time I spent reading it, without much in return. Maybe a different, younger audience appreciates this book more than I can.
Solid, solid , solid! Well written, inventive, full of the patented SK lyric moments. Respectful of The Shining but going to its own path. I also got scared a little, when reading it at night, with everybody else in the house already sleeping. Why not 5? It was a close call, I'm reserving my 5 for books that leave me in a more emotional state. This was close, but not quite there. Still, I liked it a lot!
Nice little story. It is the second time that I try to read something from Baricco. The first book “oceano mare” didn't resonate with me, and I actually abandoned it. So I tried something shorter, and I was more lucky. The story is sweet and original and the Italian is not too sophisticated that it could sound fake.
Interesting how I reacted o this book... After the first 10-15% of the book, I was ready to abandon it. I found it tedious, repeating the same concept again and again with just different words and different examples. I powered through the slog mostly out of curiosity, given the great reviews and finally got to the good part. The tone of the author is perfect, judgement is restrained and there's no self indulgence, and that made the read in the end quite compelling. Probably, as a fiction, it would be a 3 stars, but as a memoir. I think it brings something important in an elegant way, so it gets an extra star from me.
Yes! That's a 5! Long, intense, but never boring, this past week with this book was a great ride. I usually become impatient with long books, but this one had exactly the number of pages it needed to tell a great story. And I also got a little bit of American history lesson for free ;-) Anyway, definitely one of the best non-horror effort from SK, I rate it a little better than Under the Dome.