Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
I had never read anything by Stephanie Meyer before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The plot line of this book was good but had a good ending but the characters weren’t entirely real enough for me
dark
medium-paced
3.5 stars. This book had a lot of potential but the inevitable, boring romance in the middle third just weighed the whole thing down. The spy stuff was decently written; if they had cut 100 pages of treacle and added back 100 pages of torture, technique, and poisons, I would have been happy.
Intricate and well developed story about a woman on the run from a secret government organization that used to be her employer. Although I really enjoyed the book, the narration was confusing at times. Although it is (sort of) told from the main characters point of view, there often are times that the main character just jumps right in to some plan/action, and it’s as if there was no planning phase to these well thought out schemes. It gave me the feeling that I had skipped over something important. This might not be so frustrating if it didn’t delve SO deep into her thoughts about how she is socially awkward/doesn’t understand love/is used to being alone... Yada yada. Anyway, had I been prepared for that going in, I think I might have gave it 5 stars. It really is a very interesting story that ties together so perfectly in the end! I’m a sucker for a badass female lead.
Full disclosure...I made it through maybe two thirds of the book. Is it just me, or did this seem a little tedious and lack the spark a continually running-from-assasins book really should have? Maybe I'll pick it up later. But for now, I'm just tired of reading it. (Random rating of three stars.)
See my other reviews at Never Enough Books
She was one of the best at what she did, and almost no one knew. With her help, the country had been saved several times over; yet there were no thanks or accolades sent her way. The U.S. government used her and when they decided she was a liability they went after her.
Never staying in one place for long, she has learned not to trust any one.
When her former handler offers a way out, she realizes this could be her only chance to finally be free. It means taking one last job for them; doing the one thing she resolved never to do again one more time.
The job itself is not that difficult. It is what she learns however, that turns her already precarious existence from bad to worse.
I admit, dear reader, to being pleasantly surprised by Stephenie Meyer’s The Chemist. My first introduction to her writing was with the Twilight novels – books I alas, did not enjoy reading. So when I saw she had come out with a new book, I was a bit hesitant. However, when I started this blog I read that a good reviewer reads nearly everything they can. Good books, bad books, it makes no difference. So I picked up the book at my local library and began to read.
Dear reader, I am quite glad I did. The Chemist is an amazing book; one that is a far cry from Meyer’s first forays in to writing. Several time I had to remind myself that this was the same author. Her writing style has changed and grown and become much better.
If there was one complaint I had about The Chemist, it would be how easily the main male and female characters fall in love with one another. It could almost be considered a kind of Stockholm Syndrome – a point one of the characters actually made in the book and one I agree with. It seems to be a recurring theme in Meyer’s books, having occurred in the Twilight novels, The Host, and now The Chemist.
Aside from that one small quibble, The Chemist is an excellent book. Well written and full of action, it kept me enthralled from the first page to the last. Readers who enjoy a densely packed thriller are likely to enjoy this one.
She was one of the best at what she did, and almost no one knew. With her help, the country had been saved several times over; yet there were no thanks or accolades sent her way. The U.S. government used her and when they decided she was a liability they went after her.
Never staying in one place for long, she has learned not to trust any one.
When her former handler offers a way out, she realizes this could be her only chance to finally be free. It means taking one last job for them; doing the one thing she resolved never to do again one more time.
The job itself is not that difficult. It is what she learns however, that turns her already precarious existence from bad to worse.
I admit, dear reader, to being pleasantly surprised by Stephenie Meyer’s The Chemist. My first introduction to her writing was with the Twilight novels – books I alas, did not enjoy reading. So when I saw she had come out with a new book, I was a bit hesitant. However, when I started this blog I read that a good reviewer reads nearly everything they can. Good books, bad books, it makes no difference. So I picked up the book at my local library and began to read.
Dear reader, I am quite glad I did. The Chemist is an amazing book; one that is a far cry from Meyer’s first forays in to writing. Several time I had to remind myself that this was the same author. Her writing style has changed and grown and become much better.
If there was one complaint I had about The Chemist, it would be how easily the main male and female characters fall in love with one another. It could almost be considered a kind of Stockholm Syndrome – a point one of the characters actually made in the book and one I agree with. It seems to be a recurring theme in Meyer’s books, having occurred in the Twilight novels, The Host, and now The Chemist.
Aside from that one small quibble, The Chemist is an excellent book. Well written and full of action, it kept me enthralled from the first page to the last. Readers who enjoy a densely packed thriller are likely to enjoy this one.
Oh my god this was a slog. I would've DNF'd this nonsense at page 30 if it weren't my book club book this month. I wasn't expecting a whole lot — I'm actively not a Twilight fan — but a small, hopeful part of me was thinking maybe getting away from sparkly vampires and adding an action-spy-type plot might improve things. I was wrong.
There are two main components of the plot — the aforementioned action-spy-type stuff, and the romance — and they're both mind-numbingly stupid. The spy plot meanders along through eye-glazing science-y babble, convoluted twists, and overwrought, show-off-y schemes for 80% of the book, then suddenly kicks into action gear for the last hundred pages or so, but even then remains completely devoid of real tension — every problem that arises is put down again in a chapter or less, with no actual sacrifice on anyone's part. The plot twists are often hand-wavy and poorly explained(the family veterinarian? Fucking really?!) , and rely waaay to much on coincidence. And the romance plot is execrable. It's insta-romance of the worst kind, compounded exponentially by the fact that Daniel and Alex's first meeting is literally her kidnapping and torturing him. Hot.
The characters are pancake-flat, and the same delightful blend of Mary-Sue-ism and ingrained misogyny from Twilight is on full display — we have the one impossibly talented female protagonist (who's not like other girls, she's bad at makeup and flirting and emotions — can you hear my eyes rolling?) who is magically capable and skilled at everything she tries except for her Designated Weakness (in this case, the fact that she's physically small and weak). She's surrounded by men — there is one other female character in the entire book, and she appears late in the game and acts as little more than a prop to keep the plot moving. The dudes are tall, handsome, and preternaturally hard to kill. One is inexplicably obnoxious, the other is a mooning puppy, and neither has any personality beyond those traits. I did appreciate the inversion early on of having one of the guys be the squishy one the others have to protect, but it's kind of undercut by the fact that Alex still needs big bad black-ops dude to help her out. For a purportedly badass, self-sufficient heroine, she is surprisingly useless for much of the book.
Also, the writing is atrocious. Meyer consistently does this really annoying thing where she describes the steps a character is taking without actually telling what the purpose is. For example, early on, she's talking about Alex setting up her booby traps before going to bed, and there's all this weird, inexplicable (to the reader) activity taking place, and then suddenly there's a reveal — ooooh, she's set up a booby trap to gas potential intruders! Except this shouldn't be a surprise; the main character knew what she was doing the whole time. It just sounds like the author is trying really hard to impress the reader by hitting them over the head with a bunch of tech babble, and she uses this setup to avoid telling the reader important info for much longer than necessary. It's a cheap and transparent ploy to create artificial tension and make the main character seem more impressive than she is. And the description is often just fucking atrocious. When Alex has a swollen lip, she describes it as being puffed up like "flesh pillows". Um, ew. At one point, a character is described as wearing "a long flowy dress kind of thing". Seriously?
Please, someone give this woman an editor who passed freshman composition.
There are two main components of the plot — the aforementioned action-spy-type stuff, and the romance — and they're both mind-numbingly stupid. The spy plot meanders along through eye-glazing science-y babble, convoluted twists, and overwrought, show-off-y schemes for 80% of the book, then suddenly kicks into action gear for the last hundred pages or so, but even then remains completely devoid of real tension — every problem that arises is put down again in a chapter or less, with no actual sacrifice on anyone's part. The plot twists are often hand-wavy and poorly explained
The characters are pancake-flat, and the same delightful blend of Mary-Sue-ism and ingrained misogyny from Twilight is on full display — we have the one impossibly talented female protagonist (who's not like other girls, she's bad at makeup and flirting and emotions — can you hear my eyes rolling?) who is magically capable and skilled at everything she tries except for her Designated Weakness (in this case, the fact that she's physically small and weak). She's surrounded by men — there is one other female character in the entire book, and she appears late in the game and acts as little more than a prop to keep the plot moving. The dudes are tall, handsome, and preternaturally hard to kill. One is inexplicably obnoxious, the other is a mooning puppy, and neither has any personality beyond those traits. I did appreciate the inversion early on of having one of the guys be the squishy one the others have to protect, but it's kind of undercut by the fact that Alex still needs big bad black-ops dude to help her out. For a purportedly badass, self-sufficient heroine, she is surprisingly useless for much of the book.
Also, the writing is atrocious. Meyer consistently does this really annoying thing where she describes the steps a character is taking without actually telling what the purpose is. For example, early on, she's talking about Alex setting up her booby traps before going to bed, and there's all this weird, inexplicable (to the reader) activity taking place, and then suddenly there's a reveal — ooooh, she's set up a booby trap to gas potential intruders! Except this shouldn't be a surprise; the main character knew what she was doing the whole time. It just sounds like the author is trying really hard to impress the reader by hitting them over the head with a bunch of tech babble, and she uses this setup to avoid telling the reader important info for much longer than necessary. It's a cheap and transparent ploy to create artificial tension and make the main character seem more impressive than she is. And the description is often just fucking atrocious. When Alex has a swollen lip, she describes it as being puffed up like "flesh pillows". Um, ew. At one point, a character is described as wearing "a long flowy dress kind of thing". Seriously?
Please, someone give this woman an editor who passed freshman composition.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
