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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
tense
slow-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:
No
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
mysterious
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:
Yes
I really enjoyed the first part of the book that dealt with language and translation and learning. In my book club we have been reading a number of translated books recently and so the subject of translation and the subjectivity and nuance involved in it is fascinating and at the forefront of my mind. This part of the book raised some interesting questions about language and the things that happen when you get what you think you want. The new opportunties that arise but also the lack of satisfaction from those opportunities.
The second part where the protagonist begins investigating the "mystery" at the heart of the centre is all pretty meandering and loses sight of the original interesting language stuff. I also didn't find the revelations particularly interesting or compelling.
The second part where the protagonist begins investigating the "mystery" at the heart of the centre is all pretty meandering and loses sight of the original interesting language stuff. I also didn't find the revelations particularly interesting or compelling.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the story was not good enough to make it worth spending the book with the absolutely insufferable, self-righteous, obsessively woke (please note that i am not just using the word "woke" as an insult, the main character herself unironically uses it both to describe herself and at one point, in an argument with her best friend over whether BF's fiance is in fact woke enough) and incredibly whiny narrator.
there is nothing "darkly comic" about this book; the main character is devoid of humor, miserable and immiserating, devoted to complaining and nitpicking. there is also no real horror in the story, mainly due to the MC's indifference to what is horrific in it. despite her growing awareness that she is being drawn into something very disturbing at The Centre, she spends far more mental energy subjecting everyone and everything around her to "critical theory", policing her friends for wrongspeak and wrongthink, searching for microaggressions, and rambling about feminism than she does trying to figure out what's happening at The Centre.
this makes the entire book read like a personal essay by a leftist college student with a loose, disjointed and ultimately unfinished story poorly threaded through it-- which is not justified by the revelation that the whole book is a transcript of a recording of the narrator's story.
i avoid people like this in real life and have no wish to populate my reading time with them either. thank God that this was a library book and also mercifully short at under 300 pages. honestly so excited to put this one in the book drop 😒
there is nothing "darkly comic" about this book; the main character is devoid of humor, miserable and immiserating, devoted to complaining and nitpicking. there is also no real horror in the story, mainly due to the MC's indifference to what is horrific in it. despite her growing awareness that she is being drawn into something very disturbing at The Centre, she spends far more mental energy subjecting everyone and everything around her to "critical theory", policing her friends for wrongspeak and wrongthink, searching for microaggressions, and rambling about feminism than she does trying to figure out what's happening at The Centre.
this makes the entire book read like a personal essay by a leftist college student with a loose, disjointed and ultimately unfinished story poorly threaded through it-- which is not justified by the revelation that the whole book is a transcript of a recording of the narrator's story.
i avoid people like this in real life and have no wish to populate my reading time with them either. thank God that this was a library book and also mercifully short at under 300 pages. honestly so excited to put this one in the book drop 😒
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes