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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
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:
Yes
I liked the first half of this book more than the second half. The idea of "loopers" and only certain people not caught in "time loops" is compelling to me. The first half was basically Recursion meets The Road, so obviously I was ALL in. The characters were cool too. Likable. Varied. Even cool community rules and belief systems were established. But I just can't get behind the explanation / ending simply because there wasn't enough of it. It felt... anti-climatic. Unrevelatory. A good Sci-Fi novel has to have enough real science mixed with the suspension of disbelief to make the reader not only understand the rules of the imaginary world - but believe them. While the "looping" rules for the most part passed this test, the ending did not. I wanted more substance, but ultimately I am only left with more questions.
I love the dystopian and post-apocalyptic genre so it’s no surprise I loved this book. I enjoyed it the most at the start seeing how Coco was surviving the Looping in terms of food and daily life.
Third person gets hate on BookTok but it’s the best way to write, in my opinion, and it made the excerpts of the diary entries more special.
This was dual POV but it wasn’t constantly change, it only changed a few times in the book and there were large chunks of the same POV at a time. At first I didn’t appreciate it and wanted to get back to Coco’s POV, but it was a good way to see the years pass.
The ending is something you could predict, and you (the reader) kinda know it’s going to happen, but it still made me cry a lot, and considering I barely ever cry, let alone because of a work of fiction, that says a lot. It was a good ending, it was understandable, sad, and leaves some wanting to know more about what happens, but I think it’s better to be left wanting than to have too much that you don’t like it anymore.
Huge thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this awesome book!!
Third person gets hate on BookTok but it’s the best way to write, in my opinion, and it made the excerpts of the diary entries more special.
This was dual POV but it wasn’t constantly change, it only changed a few times in the book and there were large chunks of the same POV at a time. At first I didn’t appreciate it and wanted to get back to Coco’s POV, but it was a good way to see the years pass.
The ending is something you could predict, and you (the reader) kinda know it’s going to happen, but it still made me cry a lot, and considering I barely ever cry, let alone because of a work of fiction, that says a lot. It was a good ending, it was understandable, sad, and leaves some wanting to know more about what happens, but I think it’s better to be left wanting than to have too much that you don’t like it anymore.
Huge thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this awesome book!!
Oh My world! What can I say about a book that spoiled the next book to me?! I absolutely loved each moment of this book, I have grown with Coco, I have suffered with her, I was absolutely destroyed by the ending, and I can not stop thinking about this book, how I loved the way it was written.
In this book, each chapter have a small interlude written in the first person by Coco or by Forrest, a bit how a personal diary is written, and in this audiobook having two people telling the story sounds so even better, they both bring so much emotion, and all characters to life. I already knew Theresa Plummer, she read another series that I absolutely loved, so even thou I didn’t know if I would like the story I knew I would be great with her reading, I didn’t know Ari Fliakos, but I loved his part as well, I enjoy so much more when the people reading do all the other voices around and they both delivered on that department, and you know what? The story is as good as Theresa and Ari reading, I loved this book to bits, I ended up reading and listening at the same time, and I cant recommend this book enough, the story is great, the actors reading do a really great job, you feel each of their words, their fears, their joy… yeah I wish I could start again without knowing the story.. make it the first time again…
This apocalypse is very different from all the other apocalyptical books that we can find out there, people are inside of loops, and the people we follow are outside of those loops, and if they interact with the people inside those loops the people inside the loop will fight against the people who bothered them and then they will die and disappear, and that is true for animals as with people… only in the end we learn what happened in Coco House in the beginning… and where my broken heart starts, I am lying, it started a way before... I will just throw that out there, in the last 15% of the book I was ugly crying, I knew it was almost at the end, and it brings so many feeling to the surface.. yeah just thinking about the story and how it ends I am crying again, but still I can only highly recommend it, I loved it so much, the way the story is written even with the mention of babies being made, its very clean in the language, so it is fine for all ages, at least in my opinion, Coco was 12 when the end started, and while she feels mature, she also feels innocent during the book, even when thinking of her son… just read on and you’ll understand what I mean.
Thank you NetGalley and Campfire Publishing for the free AAC and this is my honest opinion.
In this book, each chapter have a small interlude written in the first person by Coco or by Forrest, a bit how a personal diary is written, and in this audiobook having two people telling the story sounds so even better, they both bring so much emotion, and all characters to life. I already knew Theresa Plummer, she read another series that I absolutely loved, so even thou I didn’t know if I would like the story I knew I would be great with her reading, I didn’t know Ari Fliakos, but I loved his part as well, I enjoy so much more when the people reading do all the other voices around and they both delivered on that department, and you know what? The story is as good as Theresa and Ari reading, I loved this book to bits, I ended up reading and listening at the same time, and I cant recommend this book enough, the story is great, the actors reading do a really great job, you feel each of their words, their fears, their joy… yeah I wish I could start again without knowing the story.. make it the first time again…
This apocalypse is very different from all the other apocalyptical books that we can find out there, people are inside of loops, and the people we follow are outside of those loops, and if they interact with the people inside those loops the people inside the loop will fight against the people who bothered them and then they will die and disappear, and that is true for animals as with people… only in the end we learn what happened in Coco House in the beginning… and where my broken heart starts, I am lying, it started a way before... I will just throw that out there, in the last 15% of the book I was ugly crying, I knew it was almost at the end, and it brings so many feeling to the surface.. yeah just thinking about the story and how it ends I am crying again, but still I can only highly recommend it, I loved it so much, the way the story is written even with the mention of babies being made, its very clean in the language, so it is fine for all ages, at least in my opinion, Coco was 12 when the end started, and while she feels mature, she also feels innocent during the book, even when thinking of her son… just read on and you’ll understand what I mean.
Thank you NetGalley and Campfire Publishing for the free AAC and this is my honest opinion.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is the best book I have ever read. I will never be the same. 5 stars is a joke. This book legit deserves Never-Ending stars. In addition to all of the tears I shed reading the actual story, I cried reading the
"About This Book" section, AND the acknowledgments (which I don't always read). They were just as powerful to me. Cover to cover, a complete masterpiece. I hope one day Ann Cristy sees this comment and knows how deeply thankful l am for this book, and what an honor it is that she shared it with the world. It's almost 2AM and I am sitting here absolutely mind-blown by how much I love not only this book, but also just the experience of reading it. Immaculate. I will 10000000% be reading the rest of her books. Holy sh*t bro. Just read this book.
This post apocalyptic sci-fi book is surprisingly cozy for most of the book. The relationship I built with the characters kept me reading.
The two groups this book focuses on have opposing views yet mostly live in harmony and peace. I don’t need every book in this genre to feel like The Road, but the lack of conflict between the two groups keeps the stakes of most of the story pretty low.
When this book gets to the last act and the conflict comes the book becomes engaging and interesting. The ending feels rush after waiting so long for the book to get going.
I do think this book is worth checking out and the prose is great and readable. The story reminds me a lot of B-sci fi movies I loved as a kid. The concept is amazing and will stick with me.
The two groups this book focuses on have opposing views yet mostly live in harmony and peace. I don’t need every book in this genre to feel like The Road, but the lack of conflict between the two groups keeps the stakes of most of the story pretty low.
When this book gets to the last act and the conflict comes the book becomes engaging and interesting. The ending feels rush after waiting so long for the book to get going.
I do think this book is worth checking out and the prose is great and readable. The story reminds me a lot of B-sci fi movies I loved as a kid. The concept is amazing and will stick with me.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Most people and other animals are stuck in loops - essentially repeating bubbles of time. There are, however, those who live amongst them. The chosen/survivors/unlooped need to learn to survive in this new world where one wrong step or sound may release a looper, who will attack the disturber before disappearing, taking some of what they have been interacting with with them. Coco is one such survivor. The book follows her as she grows up from a lonely twelve year old girl and meets others like her, some of whom want to bring back the old world, and others who want to make a new one. But differences aside, they all recognise that preventing dangerous structures like nuclear power plants or factories with toxic chemicals from becoming unlooped is important. But as the looped world begins to fall apart - a combination of crumbling infrastructure and the surviving animals and humans disturbing loops- Coco and her friends realise that they need to find a way to restart time sooner rather than later: It is only a matter of time before something essential breaks and destroys them all, looped and unlooped alike.
I absolutely loved the concept of this book! The not quite zombies but still dangerous and to be avoided loopers provided an interesting dynamic but without taking away from the focus on human reactions and relationships. I'm still a little confused about how things got the way they were, but it was an interesting world to spend some time in and I enjoyed reading about it.
The story switches between current events and diary entries to fill the reader in with what happened. While this was a clever choice to allow the story to take over a long period of time, I do feel like it potentially took away from the character and relationship development. The more fleshed out [arts focussed on what was most important for the plot and we got filled in with (usually very short) "oh by the way, this happened since the last chapter" segments. I feel like these part in particular could have had a bit more emotion to make up for the amount of time they sometimes represented. Although I feel like the individual character arcs could have had a little more depth at times, I did find the societal arcs to be rather believable. I found myself wondering several times which side of things I would have started on - both had good points - and I wondered where Coco would have ended up has she met Forrest first. I definitely feel like most people would have moved to some kind of middle ground as they did as the survivors developed new communities with homes are resources and relationships with the other survivors around them, and even started families. It's definitely easier to have more set in stone beliefs when you have nothing to lose. Although I do think that it would have been interesting to have seen the more gradual approach to this instead of the more jumpy changes we get from how the author decided to treat the passage of time. Although I do understand why - this would have been much longer had time gone more slowly.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. While I did like it, it was also a bit of a letdown. I had prepared myself for the possibility for a while since wrapping up a book like this felt like it would be difficult. I'm not sure what I was hoping for to be honest. I did enjoy the epilogues though!
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
I absolutely loved the concept of this book! The not quite zombies but still dangerous and to be avoided loopers provided an interesting dynamic but without taking away from the focus on human reactions and relationships. I'm still a little confused about how things got the way they were, but it was an interesting world to spend some time in and I enjoyed reading about it.
The story switches between current events and diary entries to fill the reader in with what happened. While this was a clever choice to allow the story to take over a long period of time, I do feel like it potentially took away from the character and relationship development. The more fleshed out [arts focussed on what was most important for the plot and we got filled in with (usually very short) "oh by the way, this happened since the last chapter" segments. I feel like these part in particular could have had a bit more emotion to make up for the amount of time they sometimes represented. Although I feel like the individual character arcs could have had a little more depth at times, I did find the societal arcs to be rather believable. I found myself wondering several times which side of things I would have started on - both had good points - and I wondered where Coco would have ended up has she met Forrest first. I definitely feel like most people would have moved to some kind of middle ground as they did as the survivors developed new communities with homes are resources and relationships with the other survivors around them, and even started families. It's definitely easier to have more set in stone beliefs when you have nothing to lose. Although I do think that it would have been interesting to have seen the more gradual approach to this instead of the more jumpy changes we get from how the author decided to treat the passage of time. Although I do understand why - this would have been much longer had time gone more slowly.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. While I did like it, it was also a bit of a letdown. I had prepared myself for the possibility for a while since wrapping up a book like this felt like it would be difficult. I'm not sure what I was hoping for to be honest. I did enjoy the epilogues though!
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Terminal illness, Pregnancy
Also moderate to graphic isolation
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No