Scan barcode
vermidian's review
3.0
This is the third time that I've read this, but it had been a while. While it left a lasting mark in my memory and I could remember most, if not all, of the major plot points, the last time I had read this was back in middle school before I had a Goodreads account. Now, reading it as an adult, this was how I felt about the book.
First of all, you have to take the science in this book with a major grain of salt. And I do mean major. This book is science fiction, meaning they get to make some leaps and you just have to roll with it. Still, if you're okay with a suspension of belief regarding the science of how things came to be, the main creature in the book is very interesting. In fact, it reminded me a whole lot of the Alien movies, except without all the craziness regarding eggs and face huggers.
Historically, the book takes place in the reconstruction following 9/11. (I'm fairly certain most of the staff names were entirely fictionalized, which is fair.) However, it also frequently flashes back to World War II as well, more specifically Nazi Germany. There are little kernels of history in there, but obviously much of the details are fabricated.
I think, now reading this as an adult, I'm less forgiving of poorly written chemistry. This book harps on and on for the entire story about who wants to bone who and who's going to get the girl/who the girl is going to choose. Hint: it's not the douchebag who's a personality clone of her ex-husband. While all the characters are realistic on their own, the constant questioning of who Andrea was most interested in seemed really unimportant considering there's a monster snatching people from the hallways of the Pentagon and eating. I legitimately could have cared less about who Andrea chooses at the end. The love triangle felt forced and stupid to me. I don't care how stressful the situation is, nobody falls head over heels in love over the course of a week. Life isn't the movies.
The other thing that I found to be really unrealistic is how much Ed Jeffers, one of the main characters, dwells on his arm. As a side effect of a drug his mother took while pregnant, Ed has a stunted and partially functional arm that, in order to appear normal, is equipped with a fake arm. When you're seeing things from his point of view, there isn't a page that goes by where he isn't obsessing about who cares about the arm and if they care enough for it to affect him. Especially in the romantic vein of things, which is utterly inescapable, he wonders how it might affect a potential relationship with Andrea. As someone who is described as being in his late thirties or early forties, the fact that he has lived his whole life with a series of fake arms should not be something that is on his mind this constantly. Sure, I can see it being mentioned a few times, or of a character noticing, but there's this degree of self-hatred there because he isn't normal because he has a fake arm in place of a real one. I feel that this author could have done a little more to make Ed's perspective on his disability feel more realistic. The extent that he thinks about it seemed a little too excessive.
The monster and the actual plot are actually really fun, once you dig past the romantic commentary every other paragraph and Ed's self-consciousness. I mean, who doesn't want to read about. The story itself is a lot of fun and the creature itself was the most interesting character in the story for me. In all honesty, the other characters being so bogged down by their hormones easily helped the creature to the top of the list.
I had previously rated this at four stars, but due to my realization of how much obsessing the author did over the romance and Ed's fake arm, I downgraded it to three. The nostalgia value didn't hold up on this one as well as I'd have hoped.
First of all, you have to take the science in this book with a major grain of salt. And I do mean major. This book is science fiction, meaning they get to make some leaps and you just have to roll with it.
Spoiler
If you think it's entirely plausible that a random Amazonian flower/plant could make a human embryo develop into a half-man, half-dinosaur, please go read some science books on how babies develop. Please.Historically, the book takes place in the reconstruction following 9/11. (I'm fairly certain most of the staff names were entirely fictionalized, which is fair.) However, it also frequently flashes back to World War II as well, more specifically Nazi Germany. There are little kernels of history in there, but obviously much of the details are fabricated.
I think, now reading this as an adult, I'm less forgiving of poorly written chemistry. This book harps on and on for the entire story about who wants to bone who and who's going to get the girl/who the girl is going to choose. Hint: it's not the douchebag who's a personality clone of her ex-husband. While all the characters are realistic on their own, the constant questioning of who Andrea was most interested in seemed really unimportant considering there's a monster snatching people from the hallways of the Pentagon and eating. I legitimately could have cared less about who Andrea chooses at the end. The love triangle felt forced and stupid to me. I don't care how stressful the situation is, nobody falls head over heels in love over the course of a week. Life isn't the movies.
The other thing that I found to be really unrealistic is how much Ed Jeffers, one of the main characters, dwells on his arm. As a side effect of a drug his mother took while pregnant, Ed has a stunted and partially functional arm that, in order to appear normal, is equipped with a fake arm. When you're seeing things from his point of view, there isn't a page that goes by where he isn't obsessing about who cares about the arm and if they care enough for it to affect him. Especially in the romantic vein of things, which is utterly inescapable, he wonders how it might affect a potential relationship with Andrea. As someone who is described as being in his late thirties or early forties, the fact that he has lived his whole life with a series of fake arms should not be something that is on his mind this constantly. Sure, I can see it being mentioned a few times, or of a character noticing, but there's this degree of self-hatred there because he isn't normal because he has a fake arm in place of a real one. I feel that this author could have done a little more to make Ed's perspective on his disability feel more realistic. The extent that he thinks about it seemed a little too excessive.
The monster and the actual plot are actually really fun, once you dig past the romantic commentary every other paragraph and Ed's self-consciousness. I mean, who doesn't want to read about
Spoiler
a Nazi experiment who's half-man and half-dinosaur that was accidentally unleashed after sixty years of suspended animation and is picking off the staff of the Pentagon for foodI had previously rated this at four stars, but due to my realization of how much obsessing the author did over the romance and Ed's fake arm, I downgraded it to three. The nostalgia value didn't hold up on this one as well as I'd have hoped.
teamredmon's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
More...