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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
fast-paced
I'm not really sure why this novel is a 4 and not a 5 star but after reading a book by this author I'm always left feeling like something was missing but I couldn't really say quite what . That's not to say it was a bad book, quite the opposite, Claire North writes a compellingly readable novel that leaves one slightly haunted and pondering subjects, points of view and concepts that previously hadn't crossed your mind. This is a book about many things, about memory, about perfection and about who you are and who you become when no one else remembers you for longer than a conversation. I found it a sad, powerful, intriguing and every so slightly uncomfortable read.
Another mind-blowing exploration of identity by Claire North. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was about how history and the events around are shaping us, Touch was about how our multiple identities (social, professional, sexual, familial) build who we are and The Sudden Appearance of Hope uses a protagonist that the world forgets and a mobile app that wants to make its users perfect, in order to explore how the people around us, how the interaction with them and their perception of us, permanently shape and reshape our identity.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So beautifully written I wanted to linger over every word. The scope of her imagination is astounding, the humanity thought-provoking and deeply moving. I thought Harry August would be impossible to follow up, but this is just as good, if quite different.
I'm afraid this book was a disappointment. I loved North's previous work, especially the Gameshouse trilogy, but Hope failed everywhere where Gameshouse excelled.
Hope Arden is forgotten by the world. She can walk around people and interact with them, but almost as soon as they stop focusing on her, they forget she ever existed. They make up explanations to why they did what they did with her, now that they can't remember her ever being there. This is a curse, but Hope learns to live around that, making the best of being able to steal something right in front of the owner's eyes, and still they'll forget they ever saw it stolen as soon as she gets out of sight.
I loved this premise, which continues on the "what ifs" that are at the core of much of North's work. But this time, everything feels so much sloppier. The writing isn't as tight, the voices of the different characters all sound the same. The narrative is more schtick than style. The book reminded me a lot of Chuck Palahniuk's horror-ish books (Diary, Lullaby), in both themes and narrative style. I half expected North to make a reference to cornflower blue at some point... The Perfection app, the anti-consumerist thread that goes through all his work (albeit with a more Black Mirror-esque angle to it, to fit the times).
But while I love Palahniuk's stuff, it just didn't work here. Maybe because the book was just so unreasonably long. It felt like it could seriously use some pruning and editing. Repetitive digressions that did nothing to build atmosphere or characters or move the plot along, the pointless bouts of swearing - so frequent that they lose any dramatic effect they might have had. The random factoids that served no purpose as far as I could tell (and felt like they were directly lifted from Palahniuk's style, actually -- I'm not saying she did, just that she might as well have).
The truth is I barely got myself to finish the book, and when I finally got there, I didn't feel like I was rewarded for that effort - the ending was bland and added nothing to my appreciation of the book.
I'm not losing hope in Claire North, not yet. But I will certainly be less giddy about her next book.
Hope Arden is forgotten by the world. She can walk around people and interact with them, but almost as soon as they stop focusing on her, they forget she ever existed. They make up explanations to why they did what they did with her, now that they can't remember her ever being there. This is a curse, but Hope learns to live around that, making the best of being able to steal something right in front of the owner's eyes, and still they'll forget they ever saw it stolen as soon as she gets out of sight.
I loved this premise, which continues on the "what ifs" that are at the core of much of North's work. But this time, everything feels so much sloppier. The writing isn't as tight, the voices of the different characters all sound the same. The narrative is more schtick than style. The book reminded me a lot of Chuck Palahniuk's horror-ish books (Diary, Lullaby), in both themes and narrative style. I half expected North to make a reference to cornflower blue at some point... The Perfection app, the anti-consumerist thread that goes through all his work (albeit with a more Black Mirror-esque angle to it, to fit the times).
But while I love Palahniuk's stuff, it just didn't work here. Maybe because the book was just so unreasonably long. It felt like it could seriously use some pruning and editing. Repetitive digressions that did nothing to build atmosphere or characters or move the plot along, the pointless bouts of swearing - so frequent that they lose any dramatic effect they might have had. The random factoids that served no purpose as far as I could tell (and felt like they were directly lifted from Palahniuk's style, actually -- I'm not saying she did, just that she might as well have).
The truth is I barely got myself to finish the book, and when I finally got there, I didn't feel like I was rewarded for that effort - the ending was bland and added nothing to my appreciation of the book.
I'm not losing hope in Claire North, not yet. But I will certainly be less giddy about her next book.
This book I think was a little bit too long, and the writing style occasionally annoyed me. But some parts were really thrilling! And I enjoyed the plot a lot. It’s a very interesting story about how a woman lives her life never being remembered. I like that she fought against something bigger than her, alongside someone else fighting the same, but they both were different in the end. It was a very cool story.
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Just felt like the book couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Had a couple of interesting ideas, but since it couldn't commit, they were both half-baked.