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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There were a few places where I felt like I'd missed how we got from point A to point B, but it was otherwise just as lovely and affecting as I expected
As a big fan of Maggie Stiefvater's writing, I was pretty exciting to jump into The Listeners! The writing in this book is very different from Stiefvater's other books, but it's 100% worth the read. I loved the history of the area and from the hotel and was reminded of the Netflix show, The Residence, as I got to know the hotel and the characters. June was a great character to bring us to the Avallon, lead us through a different point of view of the difficulties of World War II. The journey of reading about this high end hotel in the mountains of West Virginia was an adventure and had me curious about the almost sentient sweetwater. Overall, I was entertained with the read and actually think I'd like to re read it someday! Don't go into this book thinking it will be like Stiefvater's other works and I think you'll enjoy it!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Unfortunately I found it soooo boring and really wanted to dnf. It still has the weirdness of Maggie’s other books but was missing the lovable characters and fun banter. This will be very forgettable to me 😕
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I’m actually kind of disappointed. This was very slow-paced and quite boring. Characters who seemed interesting only got their moment in the last 20 pages.
As someone who isn’t American, it required quite a bit of prior knowledge about the federal agencies. I hadn’t looked into that, so at times I was really confused about who was from where and what their actual role was.
I also hoped more would be done with the sources. Now, that felt like only a small part of the story.
Overall, all these things made the writing style feel a bit stiff. And from what I know of Maggie Stiefvater’s YA books, that was also the case back then, but it was balanced out by the tension. That was missing here, so I can’t give it more than 2.5 stars.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3,75
i did really like this book but I have to agree with most of the reviewers that certain aspects were underdeveloped and fell flat. The setting was wonderful and felt expansive but that combined with a big list of characters, class issues, euthanasia, two romances and two peoples' backstories meant that something had to take a back seat. I wish she'd simply reduced the amounts of named characters to focus more on Tucker and June but then it would have been harder to tackle issues like the Wolfe's family. The "You're making me choose", "no, im afraid your country is doing that" moment was a great one with a lot of emotional payoff. It is heartwrenching that Sabine did not take the one chance SHE had to save her daughter. Mostly this was an enjoyable book. I wish 411 had been cut, as well as the magic system. It was too much. The magic system remains underdeveloped, i did not understand 411's connection to everyone else or Tucker's motivation to go into the FBI and since when did Pennybacker have a daughter??? Alas this would have been better as a simple historical fiction sans magical realism.
i did really like this book but I have to agree with most of the reviewers that certain aspects were underdeveloped and fell flat. The setting was wonderful and felt expansive but that combined with a big list of characters, class issues, euthanasia, two romances and two peoples' backstories meant that something had to take a back seat. I wish she'd simply reduced the amounts of named characters to focus more on Tucker and June but then it would have been harder to tackle issues like the Wolfe's family. The "You're making me choose", "no, im afraid your country is doing that" moment was a great one with a lot of emotional payoff. It is heartwrenching that Sabine did not take the one chance SHE had to save her daughter. Mostly this was an enjoyable book. I wish 411 had been cut, as well as the magic system. It was too much. The magic system remains underdeveloped, i did not understand 411's connection to everyone else or Tucker's motivation to go into the FBI and since when did Pennybacker have a daughter??? Alas this would have been better as a simple historical fiction sans magical realism.