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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
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
I really wanted to love this - eco-thriller, gardening activists struggling to balance out ideology and revolution, a billionaire facade that is not entirely implausible to set the scene and the encounters.
Loved the character presentations, inner dialogues bouncing around as their emotions go all over the place.
But unfortunately, the amount of suspension of disbelief gets quickly unsustainable.
The characters perform simultaneously the stupidest decisions and the most outstanding feats.
Most of all, I'm bothered by how the billionaire character is essentially all powerful. An American asshole that not only is rich, but also a technical genius, and a master manipulator AND a great seducer AND lover?!?
Not wanting to be an ass, but this sounds more like a personal fantasy.
Any half serious activist would stir well clear of such a dude. Certainly never defenseless.
And I can assure you from personal experience that the vote to accept their money would NOT have been easy.
Anyway. Real shame, we need more books with these themes. It's great to see activist meetings represented, normalising non-hierarchical forms of organising.
Loved the character presentations, inner dialogues bouncing around as their emotions go all over the place.
But unfortunately, the amount of suspension of disbelief gets quickly unsustainable.
The characters perform simultaneously the stupidest decisions and the most outstanding feats.
Most of all, I'm bothered by how the billionaire character is essentially all powerful. An American asshole that not only is rich, but also a technical genius, and a master manipulator AND a great seducer AND lover?!?
Not wanting to be an ass, but this sounds more like a personal fantasy.
Any half serious activist would stir well clear of such a dude. Certainly never defenseless.
And I can assure you from personal experience that the vote to accept their money would NOT have been easy.
Anyway. Real shame, we need more books with these themes. It's great to see activist meetings represented, normalising non-hierarchical forms of organising.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I see the great reviews and I’m surprised. I see that most of them are from those that listened to the book instead of reading the book. Maybe that’s the difference with this book…
I read it. It was a SLOG. I only kept going bc someone in the first round of reviews said that it really picked up in the third quarter. It did…but not with any satisfaction. Was that the point?
The character exposition was looooong, grueling to get through, and ultimately, it overtook a lot of the book at the sacrifice of any suspense. I don’t want to say more bc I don’t want to ruin anything for those that are reading and like the way it’s laid out. It just wasn’t for me.
I read it. It was a SLOG. I only kept going bc someone in the first round of reviews said that it really picked up in the third quarter. It did…but not with any satisfaction. Was that the point?
The character exposition was looooong, grueling to get through, and ultimately, it overtook a lot of the book at the sacrifice of any suspense. I don’t want to say more bc I don’t want to ruin anything for those that are reading and like the way it’s laid out. It just wasn’t for me.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bleak, mocking and mournful
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
LOVE such a good read. 100% give it time (I restarted it 4 times). The pace and story and characters just get more and more interesting.
Overall good book. It was a little sluggish at the beginning, but really picked up and got exciting and weird, which I loved. The character development was really good, even though they were all kind of messed up in their own ways. I didn't much care for the ending, which is why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5. Thanks for the ARC!
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
I really loved this! The beginning was slow, it took me a few pages to get into the writing style. There are info dumps at each change of view which comes quite frequently. The info dumps feel important, but I couldn’t pay attention to what I was reading if my life depended on it… but after each info dump, when the present story was taking place, it was perfection, The characters were incredibly well written, The story line was unputdownable.
Our story takes place in New Zeland. Birnam Wood is a nonprofit gardening group that is trying to change the world. They garden wherever they find land not being used, sometimes it’s working with the owners, sometimes it’s done illegally. One of them runs into a billionaire American who wants to fund their experiment at a larger scale, but he is everything their company is against. This story is one about miscommunication, it’s filled with miscommunication at every turn, but in this book it’s done right and believable. The characters are complex and all the miscommunication has each of them taking us down a path that lead the story in its own potential destruction.
Our story takes place in New Zeland. Birnam Wood is a nonprofit gardening group that is trying to change the world. They garden wherever they find land not being used, sometimes it’s working with the owners, sometimes it’s done illegally. One of them runs into a billionaire American who wants to fund their experiment at a larger scale, but he is everything their company is against. This story is one about miscommunication, it’s filled with miscommunication at every turn, but in this book it’s done right and believable. The characters are complex and all the miscommunication has each of them taking us down a path that lead the story in its own potential destruction.