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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
The beginning was so hard to get through. It's like "A Series of Unfortunate Events" but with so much less humor. It was torturous. The middle was fun and exciting. The ending was sad but endearing. I think this is a good book, but the painfulness of the first third was not really paid off by the rest of the book.
This one took me awhile to work through, but I enjoyed it in the end. A new aged battle of nature vs science vs magic, you know? Plus, I love stories set in my hometown.
It felt like this book wanted to be something truly epic and yet couldn't quite make the push. Honestly, as a short story, I think I would have loved it. It just needed more for me to feel truly engaged for an entire novel. Every now and then I saw a glimpse of something I really enjoyed and wanted to explore but those glimpses were fleeting.
I liked the first 1/3 of the book but the last 2/3 were almost unbearable. I know this was written by a woman but the way all the women were described felt very male-gazey. Also, the sex scene was terrible.
Very interesting and imaginative, I loved the mix of technology and magic and the sense of wonder. It kept compelling me to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.
Do I like this book? Is a tree red? The same answer to both: I don’t know.
On one level, this is a simple, schematic fable about scientific and magical views of the world and the extreme danger of allowing either to take over completely. It’s also a (somewhat sophomoric) thought experiment about what to do if the world you know is going to be destroyed. There’s also a much younger than sophomoric romance that continues into supposed adulthood, with the usual misunderstandings and mishaps to keep the lovers from getting together too quickly. And there are the doltish parents that come with the genre.
What makes it interesting are the details: the characters, the machines, the magic, the locations, one character who is a machine.
On one level, this is a simple, schematic fable about scientific and magical views of the world and the extreme danger of allowing either to take over completely. It’s also a (somewhat sophomoric) thought experiment about what to do if the world you know is going to be destroyed. There’s also a much younger than sophomoric romance that continues into supposed adulthood, with the usual misunderstandings and mishaps to keep the lovers from getting together too quickly. And there are the doltish parents that come with the genre.
What makes it interesting are the details: the characters, the machines, the magic, the locations, one character who is a machine.
I really wanted to like this, but it was meandering, long, and holey. It mashed up too many things, middle school story/soft porn/science fiction/fantasy/apocalyptic novel. It also won my award for worst riddle used as a literary device ever. I won't spoil it. You can read to the end and get the lame answer for yourself.
At about 2/3rd of the way through, I just had to stop. What a weird book. From reviews, I knew it was going to be weird, but it also was out of the sphere of what I would normally read. The synopsis was misleading--almost half the book was set in the past when the two main characters were in middle school. I don't read children's or young adult books as a rule so that was one hurdle for me. But ultimately,I just got bored. The story wasn't holding my attention, the characters weren't pulling me in.
Oh...my. It is difficult to know where to even begin. At first, I thought I had stumbled into a Young Adult novel. The themes and fascinations the characters embrace in the early parts of this book are those that only an adolescent would care about. Not that I am denigrating such preoccupations—each stage of life has its own, and it is often a telltale of the author's generational affiliation to identify which are predominating.
But soon, the words and events darken and coarsen. Not a YA, then. So, a simple geek novel, full of magic and arcane science? It seemed to be that for a time, too, and trending in a predictable direction, wherein the hero and heroine pledge their everlasting love for one another while saving the world; how sweet.
Not so much. Once again the story takes a dark turn and leaves us even more stranded as we try to make sense of exactly how we are supposed to feel about these people and their situation, as well as just how seriously we are intended to take the whole thing.
The story line in capsule form is this: a geeky boy and a odd girl form an alliance, more out of desperation than affection, but a bond between them blossoms. This bond is then torn asunder by events, only to come together in an entirely different form later on. Meanwhile, the world in the near future is imploding, and both Patricia and Laurence have abilities that might be able to ameliorate the suffering of the world...or perhaps not.
But don't let the simple plot fool you. And don't let some of the hipster language, silly plotting (love the witch on the motorcycle), or emphasis on sex derail you from paying close attention to the elegance of language and the deep seriousness of the underlying themes in this haunting book. Yes, it is clearly written by a young person trying a bit too hard to be cool, but there is clear evidence that she has taken great pains to think things through, to study her subject, and ponder the evidence of what might lie in our future. No matter what else you may end up thinking of All The Birds in the Sky, you will not be able to stop thinking about it for awhile, and thinking about the implications for who we are becoming and have become. It is a book that is, for all its silly fillips, worth taking very, very seriously.
But soon, the words and events darken and coarsen. Not a YA, then. So, a simple geek novel, full of magic and arcane science? It seemed to be that for a time, too, and trending in a predictable direction, wherein the hero and heroine pledge their everlasting love for one another while saving the world; how sweet.
Not so much. Once again the story takes a dark turn and leaves us even more stranded as we try to make sense of exactly how we are supposed to feel about these people and their situation, as well as just how seriously we are intended to take the whole thing.
The story line in capsule form is this: a geeky boy and a odd girl form an alliance, more out of desperation than affection, but a bond between them blossoms. This bond is then torn asunder by events, only to come together in an entirely different form later on. Meanwhile, the world in the near future is imploding, and both Patricia and Laurence have abilities that might be able to ameliorate the suffering of the world...or perhaps not.
But don't let the simple plot fool you. And don't let some of the hipster language, silly plotting (love the witch on the motorcycle), or emphasis on sex derail you from paying close attention to the elegance of language and the deep seriousness of the underlying themes in this haunting book. Yes, it is clearly written by a young person trying a bit too hard to be cool, but there is clear evidence that she has taken great pains to think things through, to study her subject, and ponder the evidence of what might lie in our future. No matter what else you may end up thinking of All The Birds in the Sky, you will not be able to stop thinking about it for awhile, and thinking about the implications for who we are becoming and have become. It is a book that is, for all its silly fillips, worth taking very, very seriously.