Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
A week after finishing this I’m still wondering what on earth I read. Here’s the bare facts. It’s dystopian. It makes Toby Litt look positively normal. Two central characters who are also the narrators. Told at a time where the climate crisis, social media madness and a virus are out of control. Common statement is that everything previously said were lies, there’s a lot of lies. There’s a bear. Or a man. Who knows? Even writing this I still don’t get it.
why are books you have to read for school always so bad?
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Unreliable narrators
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There are some really good ideas in this story, and I really engaged with it up to the point where I wondered how on earth the author was going to resolve this without breaking 'character' for the story. And the answer is - they didn't. I'd say that the ending effectively falls on its face.
The 'resolution' was something I started to wonder about early on, and I was intensely frustrated with how it panned out.
Partway through, I likened it to a) a prose poem and b) Barefoot in the Head (Brian Aldiss) both of which work for me in terms of being opaque. I also felt a lot like I did when reading One hundred years of solitude (Gabriel García Márquez ) which is a book I gave up on. This one had the advantage of being a little more comprehensible, and significantly shorter
The 'resolution' was something I started to wonder about early on, and I was intensely frustrated with how it panned out.
Partway through, I likened it to a) a prose poem and b) Barefoot in the Head (Brian Aldiss) both of which work for me in terms of being opaque. I also felt a lot like I did when reading One hundred years of solitude (Gabriel García Márquez ) which is a book I gave up on. This one had the advantage of being a little more comprehensible, and significantly shorter
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic
other content warnings for terrorism, earthquake, seriously unrealiable narrator
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes