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jesslolsen's review
5.0
This book was amazing, even right to the last sentence.
Each character played a role and they did so brilliantly. Even the despicable characters (I’m looking at you Maurice) were so bad yet they were so good.
Definitely one of those books where I appreciate it even more after I finish it and think back to all the different parts.
Each character played a role and they did so brilliantly. Even the despicable characters (I’m looking at you Maurice) were so bad yet they were so good.
Definitely one of those books where I appreciate it even more after I finish it and think back to all the different parts.
emmaje01's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
pinkthinkydink's review
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
anovelobsession's review
5.0
Oh how I love John Boyne. I have read two of his earlier books - The Absolutist and The Heart's Invisible Furies and loved them both. I don’t often like books with characters I despise, but Mr. Boyne made me hate Maurice Swift and I couldn’t stop reading about him. Set in the literary world, Maurice is a wannabe writer without a story. He is ruthless and has no problem with acquiring the stories of others to claim as his own - his sole ambition to win “The Prize”. Maurice stops at nothing in his single minded pursuit of publishing books, going to unimaginable lengths. A dark, disturbing character study that I thoroughly enjoyed.
cahir's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
angelamichelle's review
5.0
[Read start to finish on a trip to ABQ]
I enjoyed this so much. Each of three sections (with interludes separating them) told at a different time, from a different pov, but with the same character at the center. In the first, a chapter per city; in the second, a chapter per month; in the third, a chapter per pub (with one notable exception). Each shift drew me in more, revealing another layer.
The ending could have gone either or two ways. I was in suspense, then it seemed I would get the ending I wished for. Then it started to feel too pat, then at the last moment, the ending was pitch perfect.
One critique: it makes some interesting analysis of really constitutes fiction vs appropriation of “other people’s stories.” But there I was less convinced. Good literature has to be more than language and story. What about authenticity, honesty, voice, theme? I think Maurice’s work wouldn’t have stood up.
I enjoyed this so much. Each of three sections (with interludes separating them) told at a different time, from a different pov, but with the same character at the center. In the first, a chapter per city; in the second, a chapter per month; in the third, a chapter per pub (with one notable exception). Each shift drew me in more, revealing another layer.
The ending could have gone either or two ways. I was in suspense, then it seemed I would get the ending I wished for. Then it started to feel too pat, then at the last moment, the ending was pitch perfect.
One critique: it makes some interesting analysis of really constitutes fiction vs appropriation of “other people’s stories.” But there I was less convinced. Good literature has to be more than language and story. What about authenticity, honesty, voice, theme? I think Maurice’s work wouldn’t have stood up.
candacesiegle_greedyreader's review
5.0
I would discourage readers from looking at too many reviews before reading "A Ladder to the Sky" so as not to destroy the pleasure of the luscious way John Boyne rolls this novel out. That was my experience--I just saw that he had a new book and knew I wanted to read and review, without quite knowing what it was about.
What a treat to experience this novel fresh with no ideas of what to expect. Boyne creates such a rich reading experience, a page turner from start to finish, adding a new level to his already varied career. As well as loving "The Heart's Invisible Furies," I also was a big fan of his "House of Special Purpose." He has that gift of creating immediately arresting characters of any place or time and pulling the reader into the story to the point that it's hard to pull focus for the regular day.
So good. Don't miss.
What a treat to experience this novel fresh with no ideas of what to expect. Boyne creates such a rich reading experience, a page turner from start to finish, adding a new level to his already varied career. As well as loving "The Heart's Invisible Furies," I also was a big fan of his "House of Special Purpose." He has that gift of creating immediately arresting characters of any place or time and pulling the reader into the story to the point that it's hard to pull focus for the regular day.
So good. Don't miss.
caterinaanna's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
dani_1405's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This is one fucked up book. Maurice Swift you will pay for your crimes. That being said I think this book is a well-written, deeply gripping story. I think that it is really testament to the writing that we don't get the perspective of the central character until the last third of the book and yet it kept me engaged the entire time. I also think the way that Maurice's psychopathy develops is fascinating with it starting as ruining someone's career to someone that loved him committing suicide and then to direct acts of violence in him murdering his wife and son. We also at the end then see that even when Maurice is arrested and in prison this cycle of violence doesn't end because he does the same thing he's always done, steals someone else's story, and publishes it. The only odd thing I felt was that obviously Boyne's 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' has been subject to controversy with people rightly pointing out that it seems to drive for sympathy towards the Nazi family who's patriarch runs one of the concentration camps, and in this book we have a slightly similar thing. Maurice's first victim Erich Ackerman is a German man who tells Maurice all about this boy he was in love with during the Nazi regime, he talks about his immense jealousy and the internal chaos he suffered being a gay man in 1940s Germany. We later learn that Erich in a fit of jealousy reported the boy's Jewish girlfriend and her family to the Nazis when the boy he loved planned on moving away with them. While in the book this is framed as a bad thing to do, Erich's reputation is ruined and he loses all future work, yet it is later postulated whether people should have been so hard on Erich given the context of what he did. And while I agree that comparing a envious gay man confused about his feelings and a literal Nazi officer is probably a bit much, it felt like an odd trend to Boyne's work. Ultimately I liked the way the tension built in this book and also the fact that we mainly got this from the point of view of his victims, I thought that was a great choice.