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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Once you accept that this book is just bad, it becomes a little more enjoyable. I mean the story takes so many absurd turns, you might as well hold on for the ride.
Stan and Charmaine are a couple living in their car after an economic crisis plunges their city into near apocalypse. Constantly having to watch their backs, sleep in shifts and living off the tips Charmaine makes at her bar job. Until they hear of a new experiment - consilience. A town where its residence live in near utopia. The only catch is that they have to spend every other month in a prison to earn their keep. While they’re in the prison, another couple (the “alternates”) take their place in their home. Things change when Stan finds a note from one of their alternates and becomes determined to find out who they are.
Sounds like an intriguing premise, right? I thought so too but this book never lives up to its potential. I honestly wonder WHAT was going on in Atwood’s mind while reading this story. Did she run out of time? Out of ideas? Did she feel in over her head?
Charmaine and Stan are both stupid and horny. But like horny in a caricature way. Not in a way that feels real. In fact, everyone in this town seems unreasonably horny and their motivations seem to stem from that alone.
One of the worst parts of this book is that it just starts to feel like Atwood began writing a different story and forgot about the first one. It reads like something I would write if someone gave me a book deal (yes, I just dissed myself).
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Love Atwood, though the character underdevelopment was forced here: robotic humans working on human like robots. Still, some weirdly funny dystopian scenes - falling in love with a blue teddy bear, the enduring love for Elvis and Marilyn, horrible robot sex...
dark
medium-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
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Margaret Atwood strikes again! You might pick this book up and think you are reading a science fiction, but no. Every technology and concept exists already. She is writing about our present times, but she explores some of the (potentially) troubling aspects of our times, and takes them to their (logical?) extreme.
The story is also exiting. One of the big concept explored in this book is the for-profit prison system. People sign up for being prisoners every other month, and living outside the prison the other month. It's the perfect arrangement, until the big cheese starts to get greedy, and the plot thickens.
And don't forget about the sex robots!
I would give this book 4 1/2 star if I could. The ending was just perfect. Atwood rocks!
The story is also exiting. One of the big concept explored in this book is the for-profit prison system. People sign up for being prisoners every other month, and living outside the prison the other month. It's the perfect arrangement, until the big cheese starts to get greedy, and the plot thickens.
And don't forget about the sex robots!
I would give this book 4 1/2 star if I could. The ending was just perfect. Atwood rocks!
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Is Margaret Atwood an inconsistent writer? I had strong hopes for this book, and was honestly disappointed. It did not seem thoughtful other than that the author was thinking a lot about sex. I would not recommend it.
I like Margaret Atwood's work so much better when she's writing about a dystopian near-future society than when she's writing about women being evil to one another. So the fact that this is the former is a big point in its favor.
The Heart Goes Last appears to be in a similar universe as Oryx and Crake, although not as far in the future. It is set in a semi-utopian prison/community ostensibly created to help alleviate the poverty of those who volunteer to spend the rest of their lives in this community, spending half of their lives in the prison setting, engaged in the production of various items and half their lives in a company town that serves the prison. The protagonists are Stan and the impossibly upbeat and naïve Charmaine, a married couple desperate for money and a better life.
I had a hard time with the premise that anyone would fall for such an obviously impossible setup- clearly, a scam involved in activities far more nefarious than knitting teddy bears. However, suspending disbelief, the first ~2/3 of the story was gripping and well-told. At the turning point in the story, the mood abruptly shifted and it became more of a lighthearted action story than dystopian nightmare/psychological thriller. I was not a big fan of the way the end of the book was presented, the ending seemed too long, too soppy, and the "shocker" at the very end was very predictable, although perhaps Atwood's intent was that not the reader but the protagonist be surprised.
So I guess my overall impression was that the story had a lot of potential but the premise should have been tweaked and the conclusion should have been completely different.
The Heart Goes Last appears to be in a similar universe as Oryx and Crake, although not as far in the future. It is set in a semi-utopian prison/community ostensibly created to help alleviate the poverty of those who volunteer to spend the rest of their lives in this community, spending half of their lives in the prison setting, engaged in the production of various items and half their lives in a company town that serves the prison. The protagonists are Stan and the impossibly upbeat and naïve Charmaine, a married couple desperate for money and a better life.
I had a hard time with the premise that anyone would fall for such an obviously impossible setup- clearly, a scam involved in activities far more nefarious than knitting teddy bears. However, suspending disbelief, the first ~2/3 of the story was gripping and well-told. At the turning point in the story, the mood abruptly shifted and it became more of a lighthearted action story than dystopian nightmare/psychological thriller. I was not a big fan of the way the end of the book was presented, the ending seemed too long, too soppy, and the "shocker" at the very end was very predictable, although perhaps Atwood's intent was that not the reader but the protagonist be surprised.
So I guess my overall impression was that the story had a lot of potential but the premise should have been tweaked and the conclusion should have been completely different.
Another great premise whose execution is not as great. I guess Margaret Atwood is allowed to have a meh book every now and again.