You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Love the characters and the story. The physics and the magic hang together well.
a magical journey of fear, love, identity, and action. magic and science swirl together like the two fish in pisces: interlocked and inseparable. this book will make you cry, give you goosebumps, and make you long for things to happen. a fantastic tale.
Weird, and funny, and achingly sad, and frustrating, and that's the plot and the characters Patricia and Laurence. Loved it, couldn't stop reading it.
Oh, how I'd love to live in Patricia and Laurence's world. Charlie Jane Anders' talent lies in her ability to create a fantastical world you want to wrap yourself into - and this one has the added pleasure of combining themes and imagery from fantasy and sci-fi that tangle together into one of the most unique books I've read from either genre. Her other talent lies in creating two flawed but lovable main characters that you'll be cheering for throughout the story, especially as the stakes grow higher. Each character's separate storyline is just as intriguing as their combined one, but I really adored Patricia - she felt like a character written especially for teen me, who would have loved both her carefree, quirky personality and her witchy powers related to animals. I'd say she was a large part of why I enjoyed this one, as well as the underlying message surrounding nature, technology, and how we should not blame either for our current environmental and societal problems, but use both to create our best world. A wonderful book that really embodies magical realism, and everything the genre represents for its fans.
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Obsessed. I chomped through it in two days. Gotta love the fantasy and sci-fi combo. Intelligent and warm fuzzy feelings.
Huh, weird. I thought I'd really enjoy this, but it fell flat. The universe where the two kids grow up is an almost Series Of Unfortunate Events or Kids Next Door dystopia of standardized tests, oblivious adults, and life-threatening bullying. Adulthood is equally absurd and bleak. It was distractingly bitter- felt like the mad reality of a children's book mixed in with a social satire, and then there was magic and robots trying to emerge from the filth. Sort of like this could have been two separate books. Bummer. I'd still check out future books by the author though.
This book grabbed me from the beginning with an interesting world and characters, and a completely rambling madcap plot. I wanted to read a sentence on each page out loud to my family. I would have given it five stars after the first ten chapters.
And then it grinds down into a generic YA climate + plague dystopia [which in the year 2022 deserves a trigger warning on the cover, frankly] full of truly painful sex scenes and increasingly obnoxious characters. The book sets out an equivalence of magic and technology from the beginning which sounds fun but has no depth as it progresses.
By the last few chapters I was dragging myself to the end, hoping the characters would die or that there would be some revelation to redeem the atrocious second half. I'm mad at the book for starting so well and then failing to ignite.
And then it grinds down into a generic YA climate + plague dystopia [which in the year 2022 deserves a trigger warning on the cover, frankly] full of truly painful sex scenes and increasingly obnoxious characters. The book sets out an equivalence of magic and technology from the beginning which sounds fun but has no depth as it progresses.
By the last few chapters I was dragging myself to the end, hoping the characters would die or that there would be some revelation to redeem the atrocious second half. I'm mad at the book for starting so well and then failing to ignite.
I'm really mixed on this one. The story was quite fun and imaginative, and was so full of many important themes, including a brilliant ending. It takes place in a near-future San Francisco, in the middle of the big money tech world full of hackers and inventors, but with a cultish underground magic-wielding group, it adds a bit of Harry Potter vibe which plays nicely with the science and technology.
The first page or so immediately gives you the sense of the writing style - fast-paced, simple, and perhaps a little overly quirky. None of these are necessarily bad things, but not at all what I was expecting since I didn't really know much about the book except that it had been nominated for some awards.
My biggest gripe though is that I felt like the world that the author crafted was too big for the size of this book. Many parts of it felt rushed as she filled in years' worth of essential backstory in just a few pages, and then immediately relied on that backstory to further the plot. With such a fun and interesting world, I would have loved to see chapters dedicated to filling in some of these details and introducing essential characters, and I felt like I came away not really knowing the main characters as well as I could have by the end of the book.
Overall, good story, great themes, and wonderful imagination, but the writing and the pacing left something lacking for me.
The first page or so immediately gives you the sense of the writing style - fast-paced, simple, and perhaps a little overly quirky. None of these are necessarily bad things, but not at all what I was expecting since I didn't really know much about the book except that it had been nominated for some awards.
My biggest gripe though is that I felt like the world that the author crafted was too big for the size of this book. Many parts of it felt rushed as she filled in years' worth of essential backstory in just a few pages, and then immediately relied on that backstory to further the plot. With such a fun and interesting world, I would have loved to see chapters dedicated to filling in some of these details and introducing essential characters, and I felt like I came away not really knowing the main characters as well as I could have by the end of the book.
Overall, good story, great themes, and wonderful imagination, but the writing and the pacing left something lacking for me.