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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Problematic, interesting, dragging, neat
Idk. Two stars?
Idk. Two stars?
I liked the concept and the first half of the book was terribly intriguing. Then, the suspense kind of waned and the book was - I don't know how to put it - all over the place? It had a good start, but then the events felt aimless and disjointed, as if the author was entertaining the possibility of certain ideas only to reject them and go for something else entirely different. Lots of people loved this book, so maybe it's just me. But after died, it just didn't feel the same.
Spoiler
King
this was infuriately close to a 5 star. i love ira levin's writing style, his world-building, his absolute tension and the slight edge his books have. but that one scene just ruined it for me. it was so incredibly unnecessary. it did not add a SINGLE thing to the plot. other than that, i love a good dystopia and this was a pretty twisty one!
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did, I devoured it. This is set in a utopian future, where all life's decisions are made by a central computer system. People are genetically modified and bred for society's ideal characteristics, given little individuality, live and die as instructed, and receive chemical "treatments" on a periodic basis which help enforce the norms. This book came out long enough ago, that I suspect it inspired a number of the other books and movies which have made this theme so familiar. Levin is, of course, also the author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, and that air of plausibility also runs through this book as well.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Suicide
Minor: Gun violence