Reviews

L'Anomalie by Michael Rutger

jenpaul13's review against another edition

4.0

Exploring the unknown and mysterious seems like it would provide plenty of good adventures, but some adventures severely threaten your survival, as in Michael Rutger's The Anomaly.

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Retracing the steps of an early 20th century explorer, Nolan and his crew of The Anomaly Files set out to find a strange cavern within the Grand Canyon. After searching for a while and not seeing the entrance, the crew is ready to pack it in, when suddenly the cavern entrance is found. Venturing into the cavern's depths and mysteries, the exploration takes a dangerous turn when an odd spherical sculpture in the center of the cavern's main room gets triggered and blocks the only exit the crew is aware of. With limited knowledge of what the cavern contains and even more limited supplies, the crew of five trapped inside work toward their survival, which also helps provide clarity as to the cavern's purpose.

A tale of survival and betrayal spurred on by the intrigue of a mystery, this story explores the impossibility of the cavern's origins and purpose while exposing the humanity's will to persist. The story takes you on a wild ride of action and implausible events imposed upon some quick-witted characters whose dialogue was entertaining and easy to relate to, even if their development was lacking in some dynamism. Quick to read, the pacing for the first two parts was good and steadily built intrigue to capture attention, but once the third part got under way, events started to veer into the overly outlandish through to the ending, making it difficult to maintain a suspension of disbelief.

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

alexseekingspecfic's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

issheliterate's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

kempfme's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

katiescho741's review against another edition

2.0

I can fully get behind stories that go to crazy places, and I liked what this one was about. I also love horror in caves, and general stories of survival. I will eat up anything about content creators going on a mission and discovering more than they expected.
But this book is way too long, and way too stuffed with extras to be enjoyed much. Half the length, and it would have been a great horror novella about an over eager team uncovering ancient secrets.

Spoiler

You could cut out everything about the evil corporation and it would make no difference. What does it matter that Feather was working for Big Corp? Wouldn't things have happened the exact same way regardless?

Also, a boring side story about the main guy and his ex-wife. All the characters are one dimensional, but that wouldn't matter if the book was tighter on the tension. The story takes ages to get started, with lots of "witty banter" between the team

Spoiler

It didn't help that, when things finally picked up, everyone who was left for dead (with one exception) came back alive anyway

.
The concept that is revealed in the story is very interesting - full on B-Movie nonsense, but a lot of fun. Just a shame the book it's in was such a drag.

hgatfield's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

risaxu's review against another edition

4.0

At the start of reading this, I thought it was a BOTM dud. Didn’t feel like my type of genre and felt more like my husband’s. I am SO glad I stuck with it and kept going! This needs to be a movie!

blutangclan's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

2.75

karter's review against another edition

4.0

For an audio book it surprisingly kept me engaged throughout so kudos to that. Good tension and spooky in places. Bit convenient tie up at the end especially regarding Jemma but it's fiction lol

mshultz89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really liked the writing of this book. It definitely flowed well and had just enough going on to keep me intrigued. However, I was never scared at all. I felt like it took a long time to get to anything really happening. So it ended up being very mid for me personally.