Stephanie
I've read a lot of dystopians books in my day. This has to be one of the better ones I've come across. We are kept in the dark, like our main character Benson for the entirety of the book and when we think we are getting somewhere we realized that we have gotten nowhere at all. I'm not used to being kept guessing so well. It's great.
I read this book a while ago and liked it then, but I never finished the series. I'm rereading it because I intend to read the entire series. This was a decent debut novel. If you like Charlaine Harris and Laurell K. Hamilton, this book is of a similar vein, but maybe a little less raunchy. Rachel Morgan is an exciting and funny character who gives us a crash course into an alternative Ohio where every version of supernatural lives alongside humans. With alternative versions of the FBI and colleges teaching witchcraft, the world making seems to be top-notch. I believe book number 14 was just recently released, so I have many books ahead of me.
Honestly, I thought this book was overhyped. At times Eggers is clever, but mainly this memoir is filled with his rambling and stream of consciousness style of writing that became annoying since it amounted to nothing. Aside from listing every tragedy he or his friends experienced I'm not sure why he even needed a memoir. Was I supposed to learn something from this? I didn't.
This book is rife with too many literary and pop culture references, a lead that is too self aware, and a supporting cast of adolescents and adults who cannot get their life together. At times it's almost a chore to read and other times I believe I'm reading some of the greatest prose ever written. What this novel has going for it, and what ultimately garnered it 4 stars was a payoff that you never saw coming and the ability to tie up loose ends with a fancy now. Even the questions you're left wondering about (provided so cleverly by the author) are gratifying enough that the answers don't even matter. Overall, a great read if you can survive the name dropping of every author known to man.
I hate when I accidentally read a crappy book. This was way too predictable it became nearly laughable towards the end. I generally like mixed media books, but the photos at times seemed to be out of place and just a waste of time? The comparison to The Miss Peregine's Home for Peculiar Children books is not deserved. Just because they both use pictures does not make them anywhere near the same level. While Miss Peregine's was a fanciful story woven around found photos this was a clumsy trek through a poorly designed excuse for a supernatural mystery. Am I being harsh? Well, I guess I have to since I wasted 2 to 3 hours of my time trudging through this mess. Conclusion: DONT READ.
This was pretty painful to read for me. I was not amused by the length of time it took me to read this novel, was barely interested, and the plot was unnecessarily complicated with too many moving pieces and players. Although it's nice to see some movement in Alan's life, Lauren was more decoration than an integral part of the story. Absolutely not one of my favorites in this series.
Claire DeWitt is such an intriguing character. Flawed, broken, and fragile but tough, creative, and smart at the same time. This mystery novel was so different than many I've had read. The existential/absurdist view and slightly mystical tone made the story even more unique. I will definitely be following this series.
Against all odds, I ended up really enjoying this book. I enjoyed the character arcs of several of the characters who really transformed through their interactions with one another. If I were to put on my psychologist hat, I would say that this novel demonstrates the impact of family systems exceptionally well. There were some characters that could have had more depth, but as far as our main characters were, the three sisters really made me nostalgic for days when my own sisters and I had a better relationship.
This series definitely has potential, but I'm not going to lie I was skimming the pages near the climax of the story. I just thought it was very unevenly paced and that the reasoning for all the intrigue was either too complicated for me to understand (highly doubt that) or not explained very well within the book. I'm hoping that this is cleaned up in the second box, as I did enjoy the character of Peggy and the interactions she had with her cousin, Olivia as short as those scenes were.
Let's see: ultimately, nothing happens, except maybe the author attempting to answer the questions of meaning and the purpose of life. I think maybe this novel took itself too seriously and ended up suffocating an okay plot with a lot of philosophical pondering best pondered somewhere else. I'm not sure if I'll attempt the rest of the series if this is what I'm to expect.
