Ben Saufley
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I think it handles a lot of issues with delicacy and appropriate gravitas – understanding consent, with no hint of “boys will be boys” or anything – but the very premise is really concerning to me. As a YA book, especially, its premise of a girl who's killed herself and left tapes to point the blame at other people is worrying. Having had my own struggles with depression in adolescence, I think that the idea of weaponized suicide is dangerous and could be easily seductive to a kid who has those same struggles. The line between recognizing the consequences of our actions and saying “You are to blame for this person's suicide” is a tough one to find, but I think it has to be drawn.
SpoilerWeak spoiler, I guess: in the end, I think the focus on listening, reaching out, not just watching things happen to people is a good one. I think the lesson Clay learned, shown as he tries to reach out to someone else he thought might be troubled, is alright. But it feels secondary to the overarching narrative of punitive suicide.
I also think that Hannah was portrayed as far too lucid and balanced. Her decision is presented as a rational one, when in reality the mindset needed to actually do something like this is the opposite of rational, and while it's good to express sympathy, it's dangerous to treat such actions that way.
I'm not the kind of person who says “let's not let our kids read things like this,” because ... well, that's stupid. But I did have concerns about how the core premise was presented, and I think it's the sort of thing that, if I had a kid reading it, I'd probably want to discuss with him or her.
I also thought there were some minor issues with two-dimensional characters, and the kind of strange connection between Clay and Hannah (which felt forced).
I think it's probably worth reading (it's pretty short, if nothing else), but with a lot of caveats.
First: it's one half of a book. Apparently book two vindicates a lot of book one, but I'm not sure I want to give Suarez the pleasure of making me read a whole second book after this one.
Spoiler
Second: it takes a really interesting and plausible near-future premise and then, in the final act, switches to absurdist sci-fi. Killer robots, man.
Third: there's a nightclub scene very early on that is awful, unsettling, and unnecessary. It's supposed to, maybe, make the character bad? But then a few scenes later, the narrator clearly wants us rooting for him.
I guess that's it, really. Disappointing after some strong setup.
Very much not the book I was expecting – and that's probably good. I was expecting a kind of techno thriller along the lines of a bunch of other books (did anyone ever read Format C? I loved that book when I was a kid ). What it turns out to be is a satire. And it provoked much more thought in that way, I think. The thoughts it addresses are far from new but the way in which they're presented had me defending myself and my own worldview in the context of the implicit criticism.
It's still a bit shallow and oddly paced, but I enjoyed it and I'd probably recommend it.
Everybody loves this series but this first book, at least, I found it immensely boring. The characters were largely interchangeable - if I didn't know from elsewhere that Rand was the protagonist, I'd have confused him with Mat and Perrin, whom I definitely confused for each other. The arc of the story had little real momentum, with a lot of wandering, occasionally interrupted by portentous language that I assume was meant to heighten tension but meant nothing to me, and culminating in a conflict that felt a little out of nowhere and anticlimactic, even with its grandiose themes.
Interestingly this wasn't one of those fantasy novels that gets caught up in so many of the trappings: dense, faux-old-timey language, overdescription, chapters full of world building and history, etc. And it's not of the “grimdark” variety either. This should've been right up my alley. But since I first picked it up years ago I'd never been able to finish it. I finally just powered through – sometimes a book needs that push – and in the end ... meh.
Intriguing premise kind of fizzled at the end. Lots of weird over-emphasis of unimportant stuff (the detective's family, the counselor's handsomeness) that led me to believe something would come of it but really just filled space. Without spoiling anything, I'd say I'm kind of fuzzy about how the detective reached the conclusions she reached. I can't tell if some of the details that were revealed as the book progressed were red herrings or things that were supposed to provoke thought, or even imply things that I just didn't end up inferring about the protagonist.
Intriguing premise mostly plays out like an after school special. Got it on Audible because it got good reviews and is going to be a movie. I imagine it'll be better as a movie. As a book it's ... YA I guess. I've gotten used to expecting that popular YA resonate with adults as well as kids but this feels mostly like sure, I guess a teen might get something out of it.
Next to nothing happened in this one. It was almost like a book between adventures except at the end they were like, “our adventure is over! Guess we're going home!”
I want to keep reading this series and probably will because there's so little time commitment but you kind of expect with series like this the world evolves and expands over the course of it; not so here. This one felt less substantial than the first, which already felt a little light. Will the kids ever actually do anything? They're mostly just experiencing everything so far.
Had some kind of fun ideas but the execution wasn't great. The writing style felt amateur; I felt the author's presence too much, both in the language used and sometimes in the concepts (the spell-shooter may be an interesting twist on paper but its description and use were ... I don't know, not compelling). The pacing and arc of the story were offputting, and the protagonist, more even than many others, was entirely along for the ride, making almost no decisions himself.
It wasn't awful, and I imagine some kids will get a kick out of this series. But I think I've been spoiled by other YA that holds up for adult reading.
It doesn't help that you find yourself forced to compare it to Harry Potter - Ben is Harry, Charlie is Ron; but no Hermione to balance out those two personalities! As the book goes, it distinguishes itself from HP, and really that contrast not a fault of the book itself, but you're going to get those comparisons when you write about an orphaned boy who discovers a secret magical world right under the noses of modern-day England. And when the comparisons come, it's no surprise which series wins.
It's certainly an intriguing premise. I found myself getting a little bored – I think the interview format can take away some of the interest and excitement from what they're actually talking about. I was pretty sure I'd leave this series after the first – not because it was bad, but just because I have a long list of books to read. But the cliffhanger-ish ending has me unsure whether I'm pissed about the cheap gimmick to get me to pick up the next one, or intrigued enough to do just that.
I was really looking forward to this book and I think I just ... don't get it.
I talked to my father-in-law, who is Serbian, a while back about how he enjoys reading Russian/slavic authors, even in English, because their thoughts are structured in a familiar way to him – I felt the opposite here, wondering if what was being said would click more with me if I had grown up in China. That's not a criticism, really, just an observation. Much of the book felt like it was told as an allegory that I just wasn't getting, or a fable with a moral that went over my head. The characters all seem motivated by some emotional resonance with the Three Body game that I feel expected to understand, but I definitely don't.
The surface story, beyond any attempt at finding a deeper meaning, was intriguing but ultimately underwhelming. Like I said, I feel like there's more meaning beneath it all but I don't feel particularly compelled to continue the trilogy because I suspect it would be similarly lost on me.
Not quite what I expected. Witty and interesting. A bit disjointed (although it's clear that that's intentional). I wish some of the things she explored were fleshed out or explored a little more. I also think Atwood walked a tough line between accepting [b:The Odyssey 1381 The Odyssey Homer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390173285s/1381.jpg 3356006] as truth and treating it as an unreliable narrator.
In fairness I think I might've liked this book more if I hadn't listened to it on Audible. The narrator's voice wasn't actively bad, but I think it had an impact on my enjoyment – she constantly sounded like she was on the verge of tears, and what should've been an intriguing adventure became just kind of sad and pathetic sounding.
The story itself, I think, was fine. Not particularly special – no shining moments that stood out and stuck with me; characters blended together and the arc of the plot felt kind of level through much of it. But the concept was interesting enough. Some of the mystical bits were kind of intriguing.
It did feel like it ended at the kind of ... beginning of the story. Not just in terms of a trilogy or whatever, but like, this arc seemed like it was just starting, regardless of the broader plot.
I probably won't read the next, but that may be more to do with the narrator than the book (if I read it at all, it'd be audio).
I'd be curious to see this live. The medium did it no favors - the writing style is so far from Rowling's that it read more like fanfic than the “real thing.”
The story itself is fun and interesting. The pacing is more like a play than a novel so I'll grant it some leeway there.
The dialogue is often quite bad and feels like it was written by someone unfamiliar with the characters he's writing.
Happy to have gotten a little more time in the Potterverse; kind of bummed/underwhelmed in what I ended up getting. Beggars can't be choosers I suppose.
Kind of fun. Felt a lot like Snowcrash early on, but went much more toward politics than tech and action. The characters weren't very fully developed and the whole thing felt kind of light. But I appreciated that so much of the world was insinuated rather than spelled out. If there were a sequel (the plot was fully realized but I could see more here), I'd probably pick it up.
I picked this book up as some pulp to listen to while running. The first half set up a lot of intriguing clues and presumable red herrings, and I was hoping it'd be a fun kind of mystery/thriller in the vein of (if not as good as) Girl on the Train, etc. It seemed like it might be. But it ended up feeling closer to a cheap Lifetime movie than anything else: most of the secrets are unveiled or at least heavily telegraphed in the early second half, and... well, spoilers:
SpoilerThe final chapter before the epilogue, which reveals that the protagonist was in on it all along (...?), seems to imply that the entire thought process of the character, through the whole book, relayed in the third person, was ... a lie? If she was in on it, why was she so confused the night of his disappearance? Why was she shocked to find he was alive? Why didn't she seek him out? It's a pretty ham-handed effort at the “unreliable narrator,” a trick which can be mind-blowing when successful, but there's not even an attempt at an explanation here. I think there was something about medication? But the medication was not properly established up to that point, if so. Or even properly asserted at that point.
I don't know. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I liked the first half. I just felt like it unwrapped poorly, and Spoilerthe weird attempt at a final twist didn't come off well.
Rowling (as Galbraith) is really a fantastic storyteller. This book is pure genre fiction, no doubt, but it's also very well executed. I particularly enjoyed this installment, in which Rowling's own convictions (many of which I share) shone through without ever seeming heavy-handed or detracting from the story.
Fun. I think this one was ruined a bit by listening to it rather than reading it – the reader wasn't bad, but was very much present in my mind, meaning I couldn't entirely lose myself in the story. It took a weird turn in the middle, not so much plot-wise but storytelling-wise. But it's interesting enough that I may try to pick up the next at some point.
It is one more YA novel where I didn't get a very good feel for the world – the author was too caught up in a few (pretty standard) characters and telling the general plot. I'd like to know more about the world, the way it feels, looks, operates. I think authors can get lost in worldbuilding and that's never good, but YA novels too often forego setting the stage, establishing the setting. This is one of those novels. Maybe now that we've established some characters etc, she'll build out the world a bit more in the next one?
Decent. Nothing I'd take as dogma but listening to it in the context of the story I've been trying to get out forever has I think helped me get over some of the problems I've had with the pace etc of what I've written and sketched out. There's some confusion - three acts overlaid on a four-quarter breakdown is a bit awkward - and the last chapter (“make sure your verb matches with your subject” etc) was hilariously useless. But the points about how to structure the major plot points etc, with a lot of flexibility in what those really are, gave me some decent food for thought. Also it's short so it wasn't a huge commitment. We'll see if the effect it's had on my thinking lasts in any noticeable way.
A lot of self-promotion, not a ton of actual information. A few breakdowns of things like how to go from outline to sketch to draft (etc) were helpful to me as someone who's still trying to figure out the process. Short enough that I feel like it wasn't a waste of my time. Got a few things and can move on to the next thing. Might try to read something else from this author with a bit more in-depth discussion.
Not bad. I really like the concept of the multiple Londons and how that world was built, but none of them got particularly fleshed out or realized. The characters were alright, but I didn't feel much connection with either of the protagonists by the time the book ended. I think the narrative arc could've used a bit more restraint – some pauses, some time to get to know the setting and the characters. It felt like a pretty standard YA arc, where something propels the characters on some half-explained adventure, generally fraught with nondescript streets and halls full of faceless bad guys and some general sense of evil, building up with few twists until the final confrontation. The concepts that were introduced were fun and interesting but I think the author was afraid to let up for a minute, which left me at the end less invested or interested in the whole story. Not that it was particularly chaotic, it just felt like the story lacked ... texture?
Part of this may just be due to the audiobook format in which I experienced it. I'd recommend you read it rather than listen to the audio, either way. The guy's voices were ... weird.
I think I only understood about 30% of this book. That's not a criticism of the book, more a caveat of my review. But it was interesting how much time was spent emphasizing how nobody could understand CODs, credit default swaps etc, and then assuming I understood it.
The overarching plot was interesting and I liked the writing style but I kept waiting for it all to click and the Big Short to be laid bare ... and then it was over. I was left with the understanding that yeah, everything they'd bet on had I guess come true and that was bad and also I must be pretty dense to have made it all the way through this book without really understanding some of the key issues.
I'd probably look them up if I were on my kindle but I listened to this on Audible. I should probably go back and fill in the gaps.
Tl;dr - probably a good book that deserved a more informed audience than me.