Reviews

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

sford's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

catelam's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

exclamationlark's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

duchesseducool's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

novelette's review against another edition

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1.0

Book club book. I probably would have picked it up and tried to read it, but I don't think I would have finished it. Hard to get into, and harder to continue.

maeve340's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

sofiaamelia's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Infuriating, annoying, boring, mostly problematic. This book felt entirely like biased assumptions about Amazonian people and communities, feeding weird and harmful narratives, and a display of unethical behaviours we zero consequence. I would give it a zero but the plot twist at the end was unforeseen yet still sooooo annoying. I read this because I was going to the Amazon with my school and had to read something based in Colombia or the Amazon. I would’ve stopped reading it but I had no cell service for 10 days and only packed one book. 

maddykreed's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

missyjohnson's review against another edition

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3.0

the only other Patchett book that I had read was Bel Canto and I remember liking it. this one, not so much. Patchett places people in extraordinary circumstances and then tries to throw in moral and ethical dilemmas that sometimes are a stretch the way that they are thrown in. This book had me wondering way too many things outside of the story. Why didn't the boat ever run out of gas? How could you live among a tribe for 50 years and never learn the language? and on and on.

byp's review against another edition

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3.0

This is basically Heart of Darkness, both in subject matter and style. I like both books while I'm reading them, but I don't think about them much when I'm not. I was never terribly eager to get back to this book, and at least once I considered just abandoning it altogether. I'm glad I stuck with it, because the ending pays off, but the pacing is too slow for me (although this is part of the whole HoD effect). I wish that at least one of the Lakashi had become an actual character.