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mightysparks's review
3.0
It was not a bad book, but I can't say that I loved it. It felt like someone telling me their dream. It felt very personal and that the author could see and feel everything about the story they were telling, but it didn't quite get through to me in that way. I'd say it was more of a compatibility problem with me, rather than a fault of the book.
The descriptions were never quite enough for the setting, the characters, the atmosphere etc to leap off the page. It dabbled in some interesting issues, but it didn't really go deep enough (possibly due to it being a children's book, but it really barely dipped its toe into certain pools). I didn't think Jean was a particularly strong lead and I found his thought processes and speech frustrating and unlikable.
It did have an interesting adventure aspect, some 'scenes' were fun and some of the ambiguity was a nice change, but I couldn't really get fully into it and I found myself not really caring if he found Papillon or not. It also went on a little too long, and I found myself thinking it might've been better as a short film (it needed a bigger visual aspect).
The descriptions were never quite enough for the setting, the characters, the atmosphere etc to leap off the page. It dabbled in some interesting issues, but it didn't really go deep enough (possibly due to it being a children's book, but it really barely dipped its toe into certain pools). I didn't think Jean was a particularly strong lead and I found his thought processes and speech frustrating and unlikable.
It did have an interesting adventure aspect, some 'scenes' were fun and some of the ambiguity was a nice change, but I couldn't really get fully into it and I found myself not really caring if he found Papillon or not. It also went on a little too long, and I found myself thinking it might've been better as a short film (it needed a bigger visual aspect).
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