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sxndaze's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
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? No
4.25
But I hope you will remember this:
A man walking fast down a dark lonely street. Quick steps and hard breathing, all wonder and need. A bell above a door and the tinkle it makes. A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.
a re-read ten years in the making. i can’t remember what drew me to this book in the first place aside from the fact that the cover glows in the dark, but after ten years, i’ve forgotten all about the plot. revisiting it reminds me how much i love sloan’s writing and his ability to imbue hope in his stories. definitely missed the misogyny and sexism the first time around, so i can’t say it’s perfect, but it captures what i love about reading and writing so well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
that_person_logan's review
Was not looking for rich tech bro tit animators or manic pixie “I’m not like other girls” smart girls who’s only personality is being smart and beautiful
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Sexism, and Misogyny
reading_christine's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
persnickery's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
The voice acting is what reeled me in, but damn do I regret it. Women were written for the viewing or amusement of the audience. I don't think I was expected to be one of that audience. Ignoring that, the story ended up being so corny, and not in a cute way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexism
nicolaparty's review against another edition
It was really starting to drag around the middle. I also thought there was poor character development, so I wasn't at all invested in what the characters did next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Minor: Sexual content
theespressoedition's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book was absolutely fascinating in every way, shape, and form!
It was like... trying to combine Ready Player One with The Starless Sea in some magical realism, bookworm-filled, high-tech world. I still don't have a full grasp on what exactly I read, but I liked it!
The very beginning of the book hooked me instantly. I mean, someone who works in a bookstore that has very few customers except for ones that come in to buy - or borrow - books from the "way back" where our protagonist isn't even allowed to take a peek into the books to find out what they're about.
Is it a cult? A secret society? Drug dealers? There are so many options here, but what really happens is not at all what I expected.
The characters are very likable, and one of the things that stood out to me was how realistic they felt, considering how truly bizarre the plot was. The characters felt like people you'd meet in real life, rather than the outlandish and whimsical you sometimes find in books of this sort. I guess that's one of the beautiful things about magical realism. It all seems acceptable and possible... until it's not.
I highly recommend giving this one a read. It's entirely underrated!
It was like... trying to combine Ready Player One with The Starless Sea in some magical realism, bookworm-filled, high-tech world. I still don't have a full grasp on what exactly I read, but I liked it!
The very beginning of the book hooked me instantly. I mean, someone who works in a bookstore that has very few customers except for ones that come in to buy - or borrow - books from the "way back" where our protagonist isn't even allowed to take a peek into the books to find out what they're about.
Is it a cult? A secret society? Drug dealers? There are so many options here, but what really happens is not at all what I expected.
The characters are very likable, and one of the things that stood out to me was how realistic they felt, considering how truly bizarre the plot was. The characters felt like people you'd meet in real life, rather than the outlandish and whimsical you sometimes find in books of this sort. I guess that's one of the beautiful things about magical realism. It all seems acceptable and possible... until it's not.
I highly recommend giving this one a read. It's entirely underrated!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
_belty_'s review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
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
1.0
Was hoping the concept or plot would eventually pay off and redeem the misogynistic, manic pixie dream girl overtones but that was sadly not the case.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
lenaandcalliope's review
adventurous
lighthearted
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? No
1.5
Nov 2021:
I picked a copy of this book up for cheap from a thrift store a couple years back and figured it would be a good light carefree read for me considering I just finished something pretty heavy. Potential magical bookstore in San Francisco sure that sounds great and super chill.
In reality this book just irritated me beyond belief, all the characters are obviously written by a white “geek” who feels like he has been marginalized by this aspect of himself- eww. The characters are shallow and they have little depth to their backstories if any (seriously why is the main characters roommate, Matt more interesting than him?). Also aside from the main characters love interest, all the main characters are dudes. The love interest, Kat despite being a “super smart” data viz chick at google is a stereotypical manic pixie dream girl that feels like she fell straight out of the Big Bang theory. She has some serious ‘I’m not like other girls’ syndrome going one and has very little depth to her aside from supporting the main characters fantasies.
I picked a copy of this book up for cheap from a thrift store a couple years back and figured it would be a good light carefree read for me considering I just finished something pretty heavy. Potential magical bookstore in San Francisco sure that sounds great and super chill.
In reality this book just irritated me beyond belief, all the characters are obviously written by a white “geek” who feels like he has been marginalized by this aspect of himself- eww. The characters are shallow and they have little depth to their backstories if any (seriously why is the main characters roommate, Matt more interesting than him?). Also aside from the main characters love interest, all the main characters are dudes. The love interest, Kat despite being a “super smart” data viz chick at google is a stereotypical manic pixie dream girl that feels like she fell straight out of the Big Bang theory. She has some serious ‘I’m not like other girls’ syndrome going one and has very little depth to her aside from supporting the main characters fantasies.
Overall though this book just feels tremendously dated since it relies on the internet (circa 2011/2012) as a main focal point and really idolizes mega companies like google and Facebook as these great all knowing beings of the future. This idea and how the characters talk about google endlessly (seriously I’m curious how many time ‘Google’ is stated directly in the text, I’m think at least hundreds of times) makes it hard to get through this even when other aspects are ok. If youre going into this book looking for true fantasy and magic, I would recommend skipping because it’s definitely tech over magic.
***A TAD BIT OF SPOILERS***
How this book expects readers to side with the main character when the whole solution to the mystery hinges on them giving away the secrets to google before they even they even know anything about the secret society and the books is beyond me. Youre telling me these books may have the secrets to immortality or something and you want to give them to google, TO GOOGLE FOR FREE I MIGHT ADD!?!?? Excuse me what?
Sorry for the mini rant, this book just feels dated in more ways than one and I would not even recommend this to my nerdy d&d friends. Despite being a quick easy read characters are too shallow and the mystery is not built up enough to make you care about them solving it in the end.
@allisonrandoms review really says it all…
“I think my own knowledge of OCR, data visualization and book-related technology really took away from enjoyment of this; all of these elements are presented as high-tech concepts that only the smartest person at Google could understand, when in reality, librarians deal with these concepts on a daily basis and a bookseller should too. The notion that the only way this mystery could be solved is with the help of a genius ingenue from Google made me scoff, both because of the capitalism of it all and because of the seemingly complete misunderstanding about how corporations work. This might have been better if the company at hand was left unnamed, or given a fake name, but it's SO hard for me to read a book that spends 40% of its time praising an objectively evil corporation.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
dahlia_boo's review
slow-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
1.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
tina94's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I thought the Silicon Valley stuff was kind of exhausting, and it wasn't as charming and mysterious as I had hoped it would be
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism
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