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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Everybody raves about Patrick Ness, but this is my first experience with his books. He seems like a talented writer. His prose was well-executed. He knows his way around story and character arcs. And he seems very imaginative and inventive. I even read this book pretty fast, and while reading, I wasn't ever wishing I was reading something else. But . . . I just didn't click with it. And the parts I did click with were sort of undercut by the ending. It was fine!
The premise here is that our main characters live in a world where weird supernatural or fantastic things happen, but the center of those happenings are people the main character (whose name I have forgotten) and his friends call "indie kids," which I thought was a weird name. (I just looked up the guy's name, and it's Mikey.) Each chapter starts with an italicized and overdramatic account of what's happening in "the main story" with the indie kids. Only, it's not the main story of this book, which is about Mikey and his family and friends.
Mikey has issues with mental health, and arc about openness and honesty with his friends, and issues with his politician mom that are the real center of the book. My favorite character was his best friend Jared, who has god-blood in his parentage, and who is worshiped by cats.
I think my main issue with this book is that it just felt like a normal YA contemporary book, with weird shit going on in the background, and I don't normally like reading contemporary YA all that much. I realize this was the entire point, but I think I wanted more direct satire and commentary on how fantasy story arcs affect common people than was going on here. Also, this is satire specifically directed at YA fantasy and paranormal/sf, and I that wasn't super satisfying for me. I wish it had more of a traditional sf/fantasy bent. It turns out I don't enjoy YA fantasy and paranormal tropes even enough to like when they're being made fun of.
And that was another thing. I thought the opening bits where the "main story" was being told didn't work at all. I thought he focused too much on the obvious things to poke fun at, like twee names (there are five Satchels, for instance), and it seemed like the satire took more of a mean edge than a loving one, to me anyway. I know other people have really liked it.
All that to say, this just didn't vibrate on my exact frequency, and YMMV. I may try further Patrick Ness books, but the rest of them sound super intense and that is also not something that is up my alley. I don't know, maybe.
The premise here is that our main characters live in a world where weird supernatural or fantastic things happen, but the center of those happenings are people the main character (whose name I have forgotten) and his friends call "indie kids," which I thought was a weird name. (I just looked up the guy's name, and it's Mikey.) Each chapter starts with an italicized and overdramatic account of what's happening in "the main story" with the indie kids. Only, it's not the main story of this book, which is about Mikey and his family and friends.
Mikey has issues with mental health, and arc about openness and honesty with his friends, and issues with his politician mom that are the real center of the book. My favorite character was his best friend Jared, who has god-blood in his parentage, and who is worshiped by cats.
Spoiler
Which is why I was so upset when it turned out that Jared decided to become a god and he only has one year left on earth. This development makes sense in terms of the story, but I still hated it.I think my main issue with this book is that it just felt like a normal YA contemporary book, with weird shit going on in the background, and I don't normally like reading contemporary YA all that much. I realize this was the entire point, but I think I wanted more direct satire and commentary on how fantasy story arcs affect common people than was going on here. Also, this is satire specifically directed at YA fantasy and paranormal/sf, and I that wasn't super satisfying for me. I wish it had more of a traditional sf/fantasy bent. It turns out I don't enjoy YA fantasy and paranormal tropes even enough to like when they're being made fun of.
And that was another thing. I thought the opening bits where the "main story" was being told didn't work at all. I thought he focused too much on the obvious things to poke fun at, like twee names (there are five Satchels, for instance), and it seemed like the satire took more of a mean edge than a loving one, to me anyway. I know other people have really liked it.
All that to say, this just didn't vibrate on my exact frequency, and YMMV. I may try further Patrick Ness books, but the rest of them sound super intense and that is also not something that is up my alley. I don't know, maybe.
Istyria book blog ~ B's world of enchanted books
This book was awesome! I'm kind of ashamed now that I haven't read other books by this author before. I will change that. Now. Because I seriously loved this book so much. I want more. Can I have more?
Mikey is not the Chosen One. He's just an ordinary guy who wants to graduate high school and work up the courage to ask Henna out before this week's Chosen One blows up the High School. Again. Because sometimes there are bigger problems than this week's end of the world.
In this world, all the YA stories are real. There are kids that are the Chosen Ones, who everyone calls indies, they take care of the zombies, the soul-eating ghosts, the vampires,... But this book is not about one of those indies. It's about Mikey, who's just a normal guy. We do get a side story at the beginning of each chapter, just a few sentences of what the 'hero' is up too, which I really liked. Especially since it's the most cliche thing ever, making the main story so much more special and original and awesome.
Mikey tries to get through high school and graduate before someone blows it up again. He doesn't have an easy life and really has no time to worry about all the strange stuff going on in town lately. I felt really, really bad for him. He's such a great guy and he doesn't deserve what he's going through at the moment. But he does grow in this book and I loved him so much! I also loved his twin sister Mel, their mutual friend Henna and Mikey's best friend Jared, who's actually not so very normal. They were all so perfectly flawed and I love all of them to bits.
I don't really know what else to say, so... Just read it. It's amazing, it really is. I highly recommend it to everyone because it's unlike anything you've read before and I think (and hope) you'll love it as much as I did.
This review is also (or -soon- will be) posted on Istyria book blog
Actual rating 4.5
I don't know what I expected from this book but I was very pleasantly surprised by the content. So many people gave this low rating so I went in with pretty low expectations but I actually really loved this story. I found the characters to be lovable and flawed and the world to be just absurd enough to feed my urban fantasy loving heart. My only complaint with this is I felt like the middle was paced a lot slower than the rest of the book and it threw off the groove of the story but that aside I loved this and I am really glad I decided to give it a shot.
I don't know what I expected from this book but I was very pleasantly surprised by the content. So many people gave this low rating so I went in with pretty low expectations but I actually really loved this story. I found the characters to be lovable and flawed and the world to be just absurd enough to feed my urban fantasy loving heart. My only complaint with this is I felt like the middle was paced a lot slower than the rest of the book and it threw off the groove of the story but that aside I loved this and I am really glad I decided to give it a shot.
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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:
Yes
Characters have been developed really well as this book is really character-centric. The world is built well-enough for the reader to understand, but the world is still quite under-developed, I feel. There’s so much on the “Chosen One” ordeal we could have got to understand .
Rating: 78%
SPOILERS
I couldn’t follow the story of Satchel and the indie kids, I really just keep forgetting who is who and what they are doing. But I still enjoy that Patrick decides to put this small little story into each story and have both storyline crossover at the very end.
I don’t understand why they are called “indie kids”?
I feel that Henna, Jared and Nathan didn’t need to keep Jared and Nathan’s relationship under wraps at all.
However I am proud that Mikey managed to fight his anxiety, that Mikey tried to save Henna during the accident with the deer.
Okay the zombie deer and the policemen with the blue eyes scared me a bit.
Also there are way too many Finns, I know they live in Finland but why?
I really liked Jaread as a character, he’s good in math and is also part cat god.
Rating: 78%
SPOILERS
Spoiler
So I am not really a fan of this book; Mikey is a really confusing character and thus I really didn’t connect with him. He makes choices which I don’t really understand why he does.I couldn’t follow the story of Satchel and the indie kids, I really just keep forgetting who is who and what they are doing. But I still enjoy that Patrick decides to put this small little story into each story and have both storyline crossover at the very end.
I don’t understand why they are called “indie kids”?
I feel that Henna, Jared and Nathan didn’t need to keep Jared and Nathan’s relationship under wraps at all.
However I am proud that Mikey managed to fight his anxiety, that Mikey tried to save Henna during the accident with the deer.
Okay the zombie deer and the policemen with the blue eyes scared me a bit.
Also there are way too many Finns, I know they live in Finland but why?
I really liked Jaread as a character, he’s good in math and is also part cat god.
This was really disappointing. It's not that it was badly written, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting. My expectations were really high and this book just didn't meet them.
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Though this book wasn’t quite what I was expecting, I still really enjoyed it. I was excited to read it because of the whole “in a world with chosen ones, what about the rest of the people who just live there” thing because it’s just a great concept. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting but whatever it was it’s all good, because I still really enjoyed what Ness did with it. I think, especially right now, it’s important to realize that the real monsters and hard things to deal with aren’t always these great fantastical beasts or vampires or ghosts or whatever it may be but things such as OCD, EDs, standing up to loved ones, alcoholism, etc. And that’s exactly what this story shows. There’s a great cast of diverse characters, each dealing with their own stuff. I enjoyed that the characters weren’t perfect, they were so very flawed and human. Sometimes we don’t really see that in contemporary YA, which despite the fantasy elements this book was.
Overall, really good quick read. 3.75-4 stars!
Overall, really good quick read. 3.75-4 stars!
Only took me 24 days to read XD this was such good! The characters were my favorite! You could connect to them in so many ways! Such good...