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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2977684.html
Hope Arden, in The Sudden Appearance of Hope, is socially invisible; as soon as she finishes interacting with you, you forget her. If you meet her again, you think it's the firt time. You won't recognise her from her photographs. She grew into this alarming condition as a teenager; messages she writes endure, but the people she meets do not remember her. She exploits it to become a master thief; but her relationships can never last longer than a night with her lover of the moment.
At the same time, a new lifestyle app called Perfection is perniciously forcing its users to adopt its creators' image of the perfectly fashionable human being. Hope and the makers of Perfection come into conflict - deliberately sought from both sides, even though neither has a clear idea of the other, leading to much conflict and confusion and excellent action. There is a lot of globe-trotting, which I see some readers objecting to, but I actually found the portrayal of Istanbul rather convincing (having been there myself recently) and felt she at least caught the spirit of the other locations. Really enjoyed it, as I did the previous two.
Hope Arden, in The Sudden Appearance of Hope, is socially invisible; as soon as she finishes interacting with you, you forget her. If you meet her again, you think it's the firt time. You won't recognise her from her photographs. She grew into this alarming condition as a teenager; messages she writes endure, but the people she meets do not remember her. She exploits it to become a master thief; but her relationships can never last longer than a night with her lover of the moment.
At the same time, a new lifestyle app called Perfection is perniciously forcing its users to adopt its creators' image of the perfectly fashionable human being. Hope and the makers of Perfection come into conflict - deliberately sought from both sides, even though neither has a clear idea of the other, leading to much conflict and confusion and excellent action. There is a lot of globe-trotting, which I see some readers objecting to, but I actually found the portrayal of Istanbul rather convincing (having been there myself recently) and felt she at least caught the spirit of the other locations. Really enjoyed it, as I did the previous two.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-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:
Complicated
This book takes an interesting premise of someone who cannot be remembered and explores much of our modern society and culture through that lens. It explores issues of technology, privacy, race and morality in very engaging and thought provoking ways.
This book was great. Yes, it took me actual months to read from start to finish, and yes, it also did make me cry once I had finished it, and it was so good! Like her other two books (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and Touch), this novel focuses on a main character with an amazing kind of ability, in this case, no-one is able to remember Hope a few minutes after they lose sight of her. This is blessing and a curse, in that it allows to be an expert thief and never running the risk of being recognised, but it also means her family has forgotten her, and it is impossible to make friends or for someone to fall in love with her. Because of this, Hope is excellent at what she does, but deep down is incredibly miserable, and only holding on through rigorous discipline, and her story was beautifully written and wonderful to read.
As in all her books, I love how the author doesn't just come up with a cool idea and run with it, she takes the time to go deeper and deeper into the concept and come up with something so fully-formed it's actually incredible to read about. She's covered every angle of Hope's "ability", and thought about every detail, and the story is all the richer for it.
I also loved the less than chronological storytelling, one of the author's key traits, and how you have to fully invest in reading to understand it. If you're not paying attention, you'll quickly become confused, but how could anyone reading this wonderful book not be paying full attention? The novel is very immersive, and would suck me in instantly the moment I picked it up to continue.
However, the books is honestly a bit depressing. The story telling is flawless, and the characters are wonderful and engaging, and the writing is excellent, but it was definitely more of a downer compared to Harry August and Touch. Also, the (kind of) time jump later on in the book did feel a bit odd to me, and made the flow of the story a little too clunky for a while. But having said all that, I'll continue to recommend this book (and all of Claire North's books) to anyone who asks.
My rating: ★★★★
You can find more content like this on my blog: https://inkandpagesblog.blogspot.co.uk/
As in all her books, I love how the author doesn't just come up with a cool idea and run with it, she takes the time to go deeper and deeper into the concept and come up with something so fully-formed it's actually incredible to read about. She's covered every angle of Hope's "ability", and thought about every detail, and the story is all the richer for it.
I also loved the less than chronological storytelling, one of the author's key traits, and how you have to fully invest in reading to understand it. If you're not paying attention, you'll quickly become confused, but how could anyone reading this wonderful book not be paying full attention? The novel is very immersive, and would suck me in instantly the moment I picked it up to continue.
However, the books is honestly a bit depressing. The story telling is flawless, and the characters are wonderful and engaging, and the writing is excellent, but it was definitely more of a downer compared to Harry August and Touch. Also, the (kind of) time jump later on in the book did feel a bit odd to me, and made the flow of the story a little too clunky for a while. But having said all that, I'll continue to recommend this book (and all of Claire North's books) to anyone who asks.
My rating: ★★★★
You can find more content like this on my blog: https://inkandpagesblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Firstly I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope is incredibly compelling. The premise was interesting. The storyline and character development was complex and intricate. Intriguing, I was compelled to find out whether the reason people could never remember hope after a few minutes was because of some supernatural element. The darknet and jewel thief portions of the story were elaborate and engaging. Overall, a thought provoking read. The story is extremely vivid and at times heartbreaking. A tale you cannot help but get caught up in.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope is incredibly compelling. The premise was interesting. The storyline and character development was complex and intricate. Intriguing, I was compelled to find out whether the reason people could never remember hope after a few minutes was because of some supernatural element. The darknet and jewel thief portions of the story were elaborate and engaging. Overall, a thought provoking read. The story is extremely vivid and at times heartbreaking. A tale you cannot help but get caught up in.
This book just seemed to drag on and on. At about 150 pages I finally decided to check the reviews and saw that it doesn’t improve. This story probably could have been told in 300 pages or less.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-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 haven’t exactly been quiet about how much I adored The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (I even got two relatives and a close friend of mine to read it just so I’d have more people to talk to about it). So when I realized I’d missed the release of Claire North’s next book, The Sudden Appearance of Hope, I quickly bought a copy to rectify my mistake. A lot of what I loved about Harry August is still there along with a compelling new protagonist and set of circumstances, however it has a more pessimistic feel to it that I wasn’t expecting—but it does make sense given the contemporary setting and the themes to which the novel speaks.
While most teens feel at some point or another that the people in their lives are disregarding and forgetting them, for Hope Arden that was actually true. The people in her life could not remember her or her interactions with them once she walked away until her parents forgot her existence entirely and she was effectively on her own. Given the difficulties of holding a job when employers and coworkers couldn’t remember her from one day to the next, Hope became a practiced and effective thief, tangling and escaping the authorities using her unique condition to her advantage. But when she steals jewels from the neck of a Saudi princess at a high profile function, more than just Interpol is after her and technology remembers her. She nearly falls into a trap while trying to sell the jewels but a fellow darknet user, Byron14, reaches out to warn her and later enlists her for a job against an international self-improvement company—a job that has far reaching consequences for Hope and the world that forgets her.
For the full review, please visit my blog:
http://wp.me/pUEx4-LO
While most teens feel at some point or another that the people in their lives are disregarding and forgetting them, for Hope Arden that was actually true. The people in her life could not remember her or her interactions with them once she walked away until her parents forgot her existence entirely and she was effectively on her own. Given the difficulties of holding a job when employers and coworkers couldn’t remember her from one day to the next, Hope became a practiced and effective thief, tangling and escaping the authorities using her unique condition to her advantage. But when she steals jewels from the neck of a Saudi princess at a high profile function, more than just Interpol is after her and technology remembers her. She nearly falls into a trap while trying to sell the jewels but a fellow darknet user, Byron14, reaches out to warn her and later enlists her for a job against an international self-improvement company—a job that has far reaching consequences for Hope and the world that forgets her.
For the full review, please visit my blog:
http://wp.me/pUEx4-LO
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An unexpected book, intelligent in an incredibly sad way.
It explores issues like personality and society through many different aspects. It never shows us a character who is obviously right or obviously wrong, and I loved it for that. Everyone was right to an extent, just as everyone was wrong to an extent.
Somewhere along the story I started worrying that the characters felt one dimensional and unreal, but looking back I think the author achieved a phenomenal effect of building up their personalities brick by brick. Now when I think of any of the secondary characters, they still feel real to me, like I could walk pass them in the street, like I might see them crying in a corner.
And Hope herself, man. I think her character was perfectly done because we may sometimes fail to consider how much of ourselves is founded in other people. She is her own person, but she is also no one. She is lost and she is found, but mostly she just is. I feel for her, but I don’t know if I love or hate her.
Seriously, beautiful book. Smart and thought provoking.
It explores issues like personality and society through many different aspects. It never shows us a character who is obviously right or obviously wrong, and I loved it for that. Everyone was right to an extent, just as everyone was wrong to an extent.
Somewhere along the story I started worrying that the characters felt one dimensional and unreal, but looking back I think the author achieved a phenomenal effect of building up their personalities brick by brick. Now when I think of any of the secondary characters, they still feel real to me, like I could walk pass them in the street, like I might see them crying in a corner.
And Hope herself, man. I think her character was perfectly done because we may sometimes fail to consider how much of ourselves is founded in other people. She is her own person, but she is also no one. She is lost and she is found, but mostly she just is. I feel for her, but I don’t know if I love or hate her.
Seriously, beautiful book. Smart and thought provoking.
What an epic journey of a book. Both physically (and the talent of the author shows in the way every place feels both strange and like somebody's home) but mostly emotionally, as Hope takes us along on her self-discovery that reads a lot more like something prefaced by "The Bourne" than anything like "Eat Pray Love". Hope is a fascinating concept--the woman (nearly) everyone forgets--and Hope is an intricate and rich character. But also Perfection is a terrifying and realistic issue, and all the personalities involved are all too believable. It's a magnificent braid of a story, with all the parts--thriller and psychology and self-reflection--continually one-upping each other and all wrapped up in this wonderful author's rich sense for detail.
It was great, basically. (I'm not sure at all that it was better than Obelisk Gate, but swings and award roundabouts.)
It was great, basically. (I'm not sure at all that it was better than Obelisk Gate, but swings and award roundabouts.)