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ashesmann's review against another edition
1.0
What...on...earth...did i just read?
So there are people who live underground. And they are either crazy or malformed. Experimented on and treated badly they retreat to a sewer home where they are terrorized by the leaders ex-girlfriend/boyfriend (hermaphrodite) 'shadows' which are apparently fragments of her/him past and personality. Mostly the book is just about the incredibly pathetic relationship between the main couple. That's not support...that's enabling. Anyway. Don't bother with this one. I think the author had a somewhat interesting idea and then just went insane. Much like the characters.
So there are people who live underground. And they are either crazy or malformed. Experimented on and treated badly they retreat to a sewer home where they are terrorized by the leaders ex-girlfriend/boyfriend (hermaphrodite) 'shadows' which are apparently fragments of her/him past and personality. Mostly the book is just about the incredibly pathetic relationship between the main couple. That's not support...that's enabling. Anyway. Don't bother with this one. I think the author had a somewhat interesting idea and then just went insane. Much like the characters.
lellaphant's review against another edition
1.0
Okay, honestly, I have no freaking clue what I read. I didn't even finish, and I honestly have no idea what happened. I was confused when I started, and my confusion never stopped. At first, I thought that the book was starting in the middle of what was going to be all the action - I was wrong. (I think. I can't really tell.) I was slightly disappointed when I thought that, too, because it wasn't very action-y, and there wasn't any explanation given. None. As I read, I started to realize that what had seemed like the middle of everything was actually possibly the build-up to the action, which confused me even more than I thought possible and is essentially not very fun.
For one thing, the way that the main character talks annoys the heck out of me. He sounds like he's five! I also couldn't ever figure out how old he was or what his name was, because all anyone ever called him was "Teller". Why Teller? I dunno. (And I did read far enough to hopefully get some explanation, but apparently not.) He capitalized random words that really had no business being capitalized, words like "safe" and "food" and all other sorts of random things like that. He also sounded completely uneducated. It gave me a headache just reading it. There wasn't any sort of elegance whatsoever, and it didn't aid in helping you read at all.
Also, the character names annoyed me. With all the random names, it got to the point where I didn't even try to figure out who was who anymore, they'd all just blended together. Another thing about the characters - there wasn't any explanation of who they were or why they were there or what they looked like until you got to their "story", which half the time didn't even make sense.
Basically... I have no freaking clue what happened in the half of the book that I read.
whiteraven191's review against another edition
2.0
DNF @ 34%
There's an interesting story in here, but I just cannot stand the narrative voice describing it.
There's an interesting story in here, but I just cannot stand the narrative voice describing it.
allisonsbeautifullife's review against another edition
2.0
So I saw this book floating around the internet, and I was excited to check it out. This is the first novel that I’ve read by Leah so I didn’t know what to expect. I looked at her website to see her biography and this is what it says “Leah drinks tea, wears feathers in her hair and plants gardens in back alleys. She lives in Toronto Ontario” I like that. I appreciate her being from Canada since I try to support fellow Canadians.
First impressions: I really like the book jacket. We have one of our main characters (Ariel) standing in front of the Toronto skyline with the famous CN tower in the forefront. Shout out to Christopher Stengel who designed the book cover! The wings are what intrigued me and made me want to pick this book up quickly. I also like that each chapter has a picture of wings at the top.
The story revolves around these ‘beasts’ or ‘sick’ people who have genetic mutations or diseases that make them stand out from ‘normal’ humans. They have created an underground sanctuary that they call Safe. The story is told from Matthew or ‘Tellers’ point of view. He is the historian for Safe and keeps track of everyone’s tales.
When I started to read the book it took some getting used to because the characters live underground and therefore have their own slang and their own way of speaking. It took effort to understand what they meant. (Think Blood Red Road by Moira Young but less effective) The chapters are long, only 10 in the entire book. I liked that at the end of each chapter Teller retold the tale of one of the characters. It was interesting to hear their back stories.
These creatures (think x-men or Miss Peregrine’s school for unusual children) come together each year to reaffirm their responsibility of keeping their home safe, but this year things don’t go as planned and ‘shadows’ arrive and spoil their plans. This forces some of the characters to go ‘Above’ to get help.
This is when the story really got away from me. I found it difficult to understand what was going on and what the author was trying to get across. I didn’t feel connected to the characters at all, and I couldn’t even picture them because I wasn’t given enough clear information. I don’t think the story flows; it feels like the author wanted to get out a lot of ideas in a short amount of time. It was a struggle to finish this, and I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends or family. If it was a series I wouldn’t pick up the next one.
Check out the blog I write with my sisters
http://bibliophilesisters.wordpress.com/
First impressions: I really like the book jacket. We have one of our main characters (Ariel) standing in front of the Toronto skyline with the famous CN tower in the forefront. Shout out to Christopher Stengel who designed the book cover! The wings are what intrigued me and made me want to pick this book up quickly. I also like that each chapter has a picture of wings at the top.
The story revolves around these ‘beasts’ or ‘sick’ people who have genetic mutations or diseases that make them stand out from ‘normal’ humans. They have created an underground sanctuary that they call Safe. The story is told from Matthew or ‘Tellers’ point of view. He is the historian for Safe and keeps track of everyone’s tales.
When I started to read the book it took some getting used to because the characters live underground and therefore have their own slang and their own way of speaking. It took effort to understand what they meant. (Think Blood Red Road by Moira Young but less effective) The chapters are long, only 10 in the entire book. I liked that at the end of each chapter Teller retold the tale of one of the characters. It was interesting to hear their back stories.
These creatures (think x-men or Miss Peregrine’s school for unusual children) come together each year to reaffirm their responsibility of keeping their home safe, but this year things don’t go as planned and ‘shadows’ arrive and spoil their plans. This forces some of the characters to go ‘Above’ to get help.
This is when the story really got away from me. I found it difficult to understand what was going on and what the author was trying to get across. I didn’t feel connected to the characters at all, and I couldn’t even picture them because I wasn’t given enough clear information. I don’t think the story flows; it feels like the author wanted to get out a lot of ideas in a short amount of time. It was a struggle to finish this, and I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends or family. If it was a series I wouldn’t pick up the next one.
Check out the blog I write with my sisters
http://bibliophilesisters.wordpress.com/
julesgou's review against another edition
3.0
For this book, you need to push through the beginning because it does get better.
I was so confused during the beginning. There things that I didn't like about the book that were better explained as you continued to read. That still left me so very confused at the beginning.
I really liked the fact that at the end of each chapter we learn the tale of a character. We find out important things about their lives and how the were treated.
This book had some powerful thoughts in it and it breaks down a lot of ideas that we have about certain things. We see how people view others and the definition of a monster is brought into play. We see the way that we bring children up can affect who they become. We see the importance of telling the entire story, not just the parts that we are proud of. Even if we are ashamed by this story, it has to be told. Remembered. Be a lesson to everyone else.
An interesting book, different from what I've been reading lately. Glad I finally picked it up.
I was so confused during the beginning. There things that I didn't like about the book that were better explained as you continued to read. That still left me so very confused at the beginning.
I really liked the fact that at the end of each chapter we learn the tale of a character. We find out important things about their lives and how the were treated.
This book had some powerful thoughts in it and it breaks down a lot of ideas that we have about certain things. We see how people view others and the definition of a monster is brought into play. We see the way that we bring children up can affect who they become. We see the importance of telling the entire story, not just the parts that we are proud of. Even if we are ashamed by this story, it has to be told. Remembered. Be a lesson to everyone else.
An interesting book, different from what I've been reading lately. Glad I finally picked it up.
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