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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
I got the Erin Holmes condensed version ;)
Not awful, just not for me.
Not awful, just not for me.
This book was really messed up. It sounded interesting but the story was just weird and a little unbelievable. I wish the author had explored more of the moral and ethical issues and made it less of a thriller. I think that would have been more interesting. It was a quick read though.
This was a great book that was hard for me to put down. It was action packed and fun. It also reminded me of A Clockwork Orange. It really does keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through.
https://bribeebrown.com/tattoo-atlas-by-tim-floreen/
""Maybe there is no innocent, really.”"
===================================================================
Flaws.
Insecurities, bad choices, mistakes, loyalty, violence, meanness, loneliness, acceptance.
This book surprised the shit out of me because I didn't think it would be THIS good. Contemporary book with a dash of psychological thriller and science-fiction, it's perfect. It contains school shooting and even though that's an important part, it's not the main problem. The most important thing about this book is not the plot; it's the characters.
Rem, a.k.a Mr. Nice Guy, the artist, has been best friends with the other four kids of his neighborhood since forever. There's Tor, the blinding sun of the team, there's the grumpy Callie, there's the goody Lydia, and there's the goofy Pete. Rem thinks they're good together. They always go to school together in his car. It's their ritual. Until the year it happens, when a kid from his school shoots Pete in front of other people in the class. That shooter is Franklin, the sociopath of the school.
Now a year later, things have changed. Tor is now dating Lydia. Pete is no longer there. Callie is getting more explosive than she usually is. Rem's mom, who is a scientist, is getting busy with her experiment, only this time the experiment is related to Franklin. She talks about curing the evil in people's brains and apparently, the experiment would start from Franklin.
Self-righteousness.
As a reader you start to see the twisted parts and the flaws of each characters, how complex they are all throughout the book. Okay, so maybe not as twisted as Franklin, but still. Anyway, if you ask me, I don't give a damn about the other people of this book lol I ONLY CARE ABOUT REM AND FRANKLIN. THEY'RE ALL THERE IS.
I loved Rem right from the start, but it wavered through the near end of the book because he's so messed up himself, it's just taking so long for him to accept it. He's the sensitive artist of the group (his word, not mine). Quiet, reserved, conflicted, nice, weak-willed, but lonely, Rem is not a hard character to love, even though I admit he frustrates me A LOT. Like, dude, come on! Have self-respect, damn it!
I loved Franklin so much it hurt me to read the whole book. According to the scientists there's something wrong with the wiring of his brain which leads to him being unable to empathetically relate himself to other people. But he's just a tortured character, moody, full of anger, but desperation to be loved too. He's exactly my kryptonite in every fiction ever. I just love him okay :(
Madness.
Many parts of this book are thought-provoking. The conversations just make me think, and nearing the end I find that Rem's insecurity about Franklin is the same of mine. Like literally my worry word-per-word.
I like that everyone, and I say, EVERYONE, is so selfish in this book. Maybe except Ethan but he's dead. I love the Tattoo Atlas thing Rem had going. I think it's a good idea.
Also, that last paragraph is just beautiful. *sniffs* Just. Anyone's got tissue?
I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO TIM FLOREEN'S NEXT BOOKS.
===================================================================
Flaws.
Insecurities, bad choices, mistakes, loyalty, violence, meanness, loneliness, acceptance.
This book surprised the shit out of me because I didn't think it would be THIS good. Contemporary book with a dash of psychological thriller and science-fiction, it's perfect. It contains school shooting and even though that's an important part, it's not the main problem. The most important thing about this book is not the plot; it's the characters.
Rem, a.k.a Mr. Nice Guy, the artist, has been best friends with the other four kids of his neighborhood since forever. There's Tor, the blinding sun of the team, there's the grumpy Callie, there's the goody Lydia, and there's the goofy Pete. Rem thinks they're good together. They always go to school together in his car. It's their ritual. Until the year it happens, when a kid from his school shoots Pete in front of other people in the class. That shooter is Franklin, the sociopath of the school.
Now a year later, things have changed. Tor is now dating Lydia. Pete is no longer there. Callie is getting more explosive than she usually is. Rem's mom, who is a scientist, is getting busy with her experiment, only this time the experiment is related to Franklin. She talks about curing the evil in people's brains and apparently, the experiment would start from Franklin.
Self-righteousness.
As a reader you start to see the twisted parts and the flaws of each characters, how complex they are all throughout the book. Okay, so maybe not as twisted as Franklin, but still. Anyway, if you ask me, I don't give a damn about the other people of this book lol I ONLY CARE ABOUT REM AND FRANKLIN. THEY'RE ALL THERE IS.
I loved Rem right from the start, but it wavered through the near end of the book because he's so messed up himself, it's just taking so long for him to accept it. He's the sensitive artist of the group (his word, not mine). Quiet, reserved, conflicted, nice, weak-willed, but lonely, Rem is not a hard character to love, even though I admit he frustrates me A LOT. Like, dude, come on! Have self-respect, damn it!
I loved Franklin so much it hurt me to read the whole book. According to the scientists there's something wrong with the wiring of his brain which leads to him being unable to empathetically relate himself to other people. But he's just a tortured character, moody, full of anger, but desperation to be loved too. He's exactly my kryptonite in every fiction ever. I just love him okay :(
Madness.
Many parts of this book are thought-provoking. The conversations just make me think, and nearing the end I find that Rem's insecurity about Franklin is the same of mine. Like literally my worry word-per-word.
I like that everyone, and I say, EVERYONE, is so selfish in this book. Maybe except Ethan but he's dead. I love the Tattoo Atlas thing Rem had going. I think it's a good idea.
Also, that last paragraph is just beautiful. *sniffs* Just. Anyone's got tissue?
I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO TIM FLOREEN'S NEXT BOOKS.
dark
emotional
funny
sad
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
⚠️Warning: school shooting, assault, murder, suicide⚠️
I feel like I just read a book version of myself, Of my life just slightly twisted. I want to put little bits of me, of my thoughts, of my moments that are just like the ones in the book, into the physical book; so that a piece of me really truly is inside the book.
Nobody wins in this story, everyone just loses; and in the end everything is lost.
This read is thoughtful and the subject of it may come off as completely disgusting and morally aprensible to some.
Writing/Story Telling:
This book does a really good job at making you care, I cared about Rem, I cared about Callie and most of all I cared about Franklin. They are built up fantastically well and there is absolutely no need for flash backs or even backstory. Which is a welcomed thing. The mistrust Rem has is so suiting and how it is so slowly and evenly broken down is glorious. I would say that I would have really liked for Callie to find out what was really going on with Rem and Franklin.
The whole poem being attached to Franklin’s empathy machine is such a great representation of how words affect people. How they can make someone care about you or stop caring about you all together. Words have meaning.
Science is every where in this, from the shooting being called “the Big Bang” to the drawings of lab rats. Besides the science, this is highly philosophical aswell. So much as questioned even what Hitler was. What is evil? What is wrong? Is ethics right? Is having morals right? Does empathy hurt or help? This read is not light and it isn’t quite nor kind about it’s questions. There are so many questions of ethics. The scene where the scientists all cheer at Franklin have a fucking mental break down is so very damn ethically wrong. It shows how science and people who look at the world just through unfeeling analytical eyes can be cruel. Can devalue human life and life in general.
The nanobots and Brian empathy machine implant are what makes this book sic-fi, but these things are also totally possible in real life. This book shows how damn dangerous that could be, how it could do so much damage, and why people experimenting with it need to be very very closely watched.
The romance aspects to this book are very clearly a more minor element but they hit me far stronger than every other element of the book; due to how much and completely I relate to it. Though unlike Rem I was not the good innocent to Franklin’s violent wrong. Me and my old flame were pees in a pod. Two different types of violent smashed together. The big difference is where I would use fists, he used weapons. (Please note here, me and my old flame were far younger than Rem and Franklin, like prepubescent young)
Just like Rem and Franklin, no one knew about me and him, we bonded over art, video games and music. I still have the painting he made for me. Heck he even liked to hack video games. So yeah, enough about my personal romantic past and how this book has far too much in common with it.
Hell yes to the explosive out of no where kiss. Dramatic kisses are the shit. I love that these two boys get some happiness.
That line where Rem’s mom says that he’s seen too much death for someone so young, really struck me as the same has be said by others and by me; about myself. I’d seen more death in my life by the time I was 18 than most 50 year olds have. The same can be said for Rem, though I’ve seen more death than he has. The amount of death he sees his life is the amount I saw in my 3 years of junior high. i love the painting where Rem hid the “screw you” in the stems because he didn’t like what he was being told he had to paint. I pulled the same shit in my grade 12 art class. Mine had more swears though.
Finally, the “no more mister nice guy” line is cheesy as hell.
Characters:
Rem: His nick name being Nice Guy/Mister Nice Guy, was quite concerning as the Nice Guy is often a complete piece of shit jerk who thinks he should get to fuck you jsut because he’s “nice”. Thankfully this character is not that at all. But the line where it is said the he is “nice” not “good”, speaks volumes. He is too good and too kind, he tries to hard to be too good and too kind. He wants to see the absolute best in others at all times but this results in him making excuses for others. To explain away their shitty behaviour. It also results in him making a mental image of people that is not a reflection of who they really are. All he wants to see is the positives of them. How he sees othersnis so very black and white. Even when it’s down he sees as bad, he sees them as being nothing but bad. How he thinks about Franklin is a great example of this. As soon as he starts seeing Franklin as good, as not having deserved what REM’s mom did to him. He mentally excuses all the wrong Franklin has ever done.
The scene where Rem plays THE video game is great and really made me think that he might be a sociopath too. The book clearly doesn’t try to frame him as one but some of his behaviours are typical of a sociopath.
Finally, Rem and me have too much incommon, our lives are too much alike. The mad scientist thing and being nice are two of our very few differences. Dating a broken boy (heck we dated the exact same kind of broken), a lover dying, a friend dying, drawing tattoos in a special book, I could go on.
Franklin: The poor bastard, he deserves to be happy, to runaway and smile at the sky. He’s angry, he’s broken and life has treated him like compete shit. He’s been used and abused by everyone in his life, even the one person who becomes good to him in the end. He is also clearly a sociopath. He’s a painter, hacker and a video game enthusiast. The fact that his art is so focused on faces really shows how important people and their affect on him is. It also serves to give a stronger connection between him and Rem. The fact that his hacking abilities are so influential to the book is rather odd and the fact that he hacked a facility soec finally made to keep him from getting out is even more odd. It does, however, also show how savvy younger folk are with tech. But he definitely falls into the “lonely bullied kid snaps and kills people” stereotype, even if that stereotype is often true in the real world. Thankfully, the whole nanobots thing questions whether it was really his fault. He also falls into the “video games cause violence and make serial killers” bullshit. Video games for him, like many, are an outlet for aggression and are ultimately helpful in that regard. This character should be taken as an example for why you shouldn’t be a dick to the people around you. You don’t know how much damage you might be doing.
Rem’s mom: She is a stereotypical scientist that lacks empathy for people and views everything in “how could this advance science?”. Doing things that shouldn’t be done and fucking up people. She’s a constant lier and basically manipulated the people and family around her to get what she wants. She also a broken person grieving from the loss of a son.
Pete: is, or was, a dick. What kind of jerk records one of his classmates naked and plays in live on the projector for the whole damn class? I’m rather glad he wasn’t alive during the book as I’m sure I would have hated him. He is a stereotypical dumb jock character.
Callie: An utter supportive sweet heart and she isn’t the one who should have suffered. She is the good kid, the support and the one there to fix your fuck ups. I like that she’s the one who questions why the shit she ever hangs out around Tor. She sees him for the piece of shit he is. I can actually feel the hole Callie left in this book; the book, just like Rem, needed her. I wish there was more of her.
Tor: Utter complete jerk and i honestly wanted this prick to die. He’s basically just using both Rem and Lydia. He’s an example of someone who needs constant attention from others and will do anything to maintain and keep it. He’ll use and abuse and throw out what’s left of a person when they no longer entertain him. He’s a bully and the other characters have horribly poor taste in friends by being this guys friend. I have a feeling this guy is basically a psychopath.
Lydia: Shes just the tossed around girlfriend to a shitty jerk. But she makes for a good example of why you shouldn’t lie to people about your intentions.
Ending:
That end just no, no. I wanted a happy ending not THIS. This was so touching, so tragic, and so.....sad. I had to sit for an hour just to be ok, it broke me for a while. It’s lucky i didn’t fully realise this was so close to my own life until inwas down, otherwise I doubt I would have been able to keep reading.
I guess this falls into “killers shouldn’t get happy endings” but no screw that. They damn well should get happy endings, especially if some other dick has messed with their brain. Frankly, if the authors going to give this death ending then it should have been an all out death ending, everyone dies style. This ending need to be that or happy runaway road trip style ending. I see myself in this book, in Rem. I see my old flame in Franklin. And I guess I just really hoped for things to not end the same for Franklin and Rem, as it did for me and him. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to reread this or look at this without feeling sad and feeling loss. And yet there’s something about that that’s good.
Cover:
Minimalistic and eye catching. The shininess Of The maze and it fading near the bottom is a wonderful touch. Silver on black always looks good and feels strongly like a silverlining to a black cloud. Which suits the book fairly well I guess. I feel that the maze is symbolic for all the synopsises in the mind and all the twist and turns a life can take. With the mouse being both representing of Franklin being used as a lab rat and representing the first tattoo Rem gets. The atmosphere the book presents is over all dark and manipulative; with a thoughtful edge. The title seems a bit like the wrong title for the book but suits how Rem’s tattoo book is like a life story and requires lots of thought. Heavy with symbolism and reflects the tattoo he gets at the very end. The font choice is strong and harsh while also looking like it’s part of the maze.
Overall, this book is stellar and will make you think. I don’t think this author ever expected someone to be able to relate to the story as strongly as I did and i doubt any others will be able to. Seeing and reading a book that was, in a sense, my own life (damn close at least) was strange and gives this book a special places in my life.
I feel like I just read a book version of myself, Of my life just slightly twisted. I want to put little bits of me, of my thoughts, of my moments that are just like the ones in the book, into the physical book; so that a piece of me really truly is inside the book.
Nobody wins in this story, everyone just loses; and in the end everything is lost.
This read is thoughtful and the subject of it may come off as completely disgusting and morally aprensible to some.
Writing/Story Telling:
This book does a really good job at making you care, I cared about Rem, I cared about Callie and most of all I cared about Franklin. They are built up fantastically well and there is absolutely no need for flash backs or even backstory. Which is a welcomed thing. The mistrust Rem has is so suiting and how it is so slowly and evenly broken down is glorious. I would say that I would have really liked for Callie to find out what was really going on with Rem and Franklin.
The whole poem being attached to Franklin’s empathy machine is such a great representation of how words affect people. How they can make someone care about you or stop caring about you all together. Words have meaning.
Science is every where in this, from the shooting being called “the Big Bang” to the drawings of lab rats. Besides the science, this is highly philosophical aswell. So much as questioned even what Hitler was. What is evil? What is wrong? Is ethics right? Is having morals right? Does empathy hurt or help? This read is not light and it isn’t quite nor kind about it’s questions. There are so many questions of ethics. The scene where the scientists all cheer at Franklin have a fucking mental break down is so very damn ethically wrong. It shows how science and people who look at the world just through unfeeling analytical eyes can be cruel. Can devalue human life and life in general.
The nanobots and Brian empathy machine implant are what makes this book sic-fi, but these things are also totally possible in real life. This book shows how damn dangerous that could be, how it could do so much damage, and why people experimenting with it need to be very very closely watched.
The romance aspects to this book are very clearly a more minor element but they hit me far stronger than every other element of the book; due to how much and completely I relate to it. Though unlike Rem I was not the good innocent to Franklin’s violent wrong. Me and my old flame were pees in a pod. Two different types of violent smashed together. The big difference is where I would use fists, he used weapons. (Please note here, me and my old flame were far younger than Rem and Franklin, like prepubescent young)
Just like Rem and Franklin, no one knew about me and him, we bonded over art, video games and music. I still have the painting he made for me. Heck he even liked to hack video games. So yeah, enough about my personal romantic past and how this book has far too much in common with it.
Hell yes to the explosive out of no where kiss. Dramatic kisses are the shit. I love that these two boys get some happiness.
That line where Rem’s mom says that he’s seen too much death for someone so young, really struck me as the same has be said by others and by me; about myself. I’d seen more death in my life by the time I was 18 than most 50 year olds have. The same can be said for Rem, though I’ve seen more death than he has. The amount of death he sees his life is the amount I saw in my 3 years of junior high. i love the painting where Rem hid the “screw you” in the stems because he didn’t like what he was being told he had to paint. I pulled the same shit in my grade 12 art class. Mine had more swears though.
Finally, the “no more mister nice guy” line is cheesy as hell.
Characters:
Rem: His nick name being Nice Guy/Mister Nice Guy, was quite concerning as the Nice Guy is often a complete piece of shit jerk who thinks he should get to fuck you jsut because he’s “nice”. Thankfully this character is not that at all. But the line where it is said the he is “nice” not “good”, speaks volumes. He is too good and too kind, he tries to hard to be too good and too kind. He wants to see the absolute best in others at all times but this results in him making excuses for others. To explain away their shitty behaviour. It also results in him making a mental image of people that is not a reflection of who they really are. All he wants to see is the positives of them. How he sees othersnis so very black and white. Even when it’s down he sees as bad, he sees them as being nothing but bad. How he thinks about Franklin is a great example of this. As soon as he starts seeing Franklin as good, as not having deserved what REM’s mom did to him. He mentally excuses all the wrong Franklin has ever done.
The scene where Rem plays THE video game is great and really made me think that he might be a sociopath too. The book clearly doesn’t try to frame him as one but some of his behaviours are typical of a sociopath.
Finally, Rem and me have too much incommon, our lives are too much alike. The mad scientist thing and being nice are two of our very few differences. Dating a broken boy (heck we dated the exact same kind of broken), a lover dying, a friend dying, drawing tattoos in a special book, I could go on.
Franklin: The poor bastard, he deserves to be happy, to runaway and smile at the sky. He’s angry, he’s broken and life has treated him like compete shit. He’s been used and abused by everyone in his life, even the one person who becomes good to him in the end. He is also clearly a sociopath. He’s a painter, hacker and a video game enthusiast. The fact that his art is so focused on faces really shows how important people and their affect on him is. It also serves to give a stronger connection between him and Rem. The fact that his hacking abilities are so influential to the book is rather odd and the fact that he hacked a facility soec finally made to keep him from getting out is even more odd. It does, however, also show how savvy younger folk are with tech. But he definitely falls into the “lonely bullied kid snaps and kills people” stereotype, even if that stereotype is often true in the real world. Thankfully, the whole nanobots thing questions whether it was really his fault. He also falls into the “video games cause violence and make serial killers” bullshit. Video games for him, like many, are an outlet for aggression and are ultimately helpful in that regard. This character should be taken as an example for why you shouldn’t be a dick to the people around you. You don’t know how much damage you might be doing.
Rem’s mom: She is a stereotypical scientist that lacks empathy for people and views everything in “how could this advance science?”. Doing things that shouldn’t be done and fucking up people. She’s a constant lier and basically manipulated the people and family around her to get what she wants. She also a broken person grieving from the loss of a son.
Pete: is, or was, a dick. What kind of jerk records one of his classmates naked and plays in live on the projector for the whole damn class? I’m rather glad he wasn’t alive during the book as I’m sure I would have hated him. He is a stereotypical dumb jock character.
Callie: An utter supportive sweet heart and she isn’t the one who should have suffered. She is the good kid, the support and the one there to fix your fuck ups. I like that she’s the one who questions why the shit she ever hangs out around Tor. She sees him for the piece of shit he is. I can actually feel the hole Callie left in this book; the book, just like Rem, needed her. I wish there was more of her.
Tor: Utter complete jerk and i honestly wanted this prick to die. He’s basically just using both Rem and Lydia. He’s an example of someone who needs constant attention from others and will do anything to maintain and keep it. He’ll use and abuse and throw out what’s left of a person when they no longer entertain him. He’s a bully and the other characters have horribly poor taste in friends by being this guys friend. I have a feeling this guy is basically a psychopath.
Lydia: Shes just the tossed around girlfriend to a shitty jerk. But she makes for a good example of why you shouldn’t lie to people about your intentions.
Ending:
That end just no, no. I wanted a happy ending not THIS. This was so touching, so tragic, and so.....sad. I had to sit for an hour just to be ok, it broke me for a while. It’s lucky i didn’t fully realise this was so close to my own life until inwas down, otherwise I doubt I would have been able to keep reading.
I guess this falls into “killers shouldn’t get happy endings” but no screw that. They damn well should get happy endings, especially if some other dick has messed with their brain. Frankly, if the authors going to give this death ending then it should have been an all out death ending, everyone dies style. This ending need to be that or happy runaway road trip style ending. I see myself in this book, in Rem. I see my old flame in Franklin. And I guess I just really hoped for things to not end the same for Franklin and Rem, as it did for me and him. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to reread this or look at this without feeling sad and feeling loss. And yet there’s something about that that’s good.
Cover:
Minimalistic and eye catching. The shininess Of The maze and it fading near the bottom is a wonderful touch. Silver on black always looks good and feels strongly like a silverlining to a black cloud. Which suits the book fairly well I guess. I feel that the maze is symbolic for all the synopsises in the mind and all the twist and turns a life can take. With the mouse being both representing of Franklin being used as a lab rat and representing the first tattoo Rem gets. The atmosphere the book presents is over all dark and manipulative; with a thoughtful edge. The title seems a bit like the wrong title for the book but suits how Rem’s tattoo book is like a life story and requires lots of thought. Heavy with symbolism and reflects the tattoo he gets at the very end. The font choice is strong and harsh while also looking like it’s part of the maze.
Overall, this book is stellar and will make you think. I don’t think this author ever expected someone to be able to relate to the story as strongly as I did and i doubt any others will be able to. Seeing and reading a book that was, in a sense, my own life (damn close at least) was strange and gives this book a special places in my life.
Oh man I ripped through this book. I don't know what I was expecting, but it far surpassed that. It's a fantastic mix of thriller, mystery, philosophical quandary, and romance, and I was so pleased that the main character's homosexuality wasn't the driving force of the plot. It's refreshing to see a lead character in a sci-fi thriller who just happens to be gay - his romances are definitely strong subplots, but the crux of the plot is more of a Clockwork Orange-ish exploration of human empathy and it's interconnection with the workings of the brain: Can a person be MADE to be good? Should that even be attempted? It'd be a great book to stimulate discussion.
I felt meh about this book for the most part, but the ending turned me off completely. I liked the concept of this a lot and the science-y stuff was pretty interesting, but the ending seemed so rushed and it didn't satisfyingly conclude anything for me. I didn't support any of the romances. I didn't like most of the characters. I wanted to like this so badly, but I spent most of the book trudging through and pushing myself to read it. I never considered dnfing it cause I did want to see it to the end, but yeah that ending sucked in my opinion. I was so angry afterwards. This book just was not for me.