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zephturner's review against another edition
4.0
I got this book for Christmas and just finished it.
The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the way it was structured. The whole internal/external narrative thing was very new and I liked the idea of combining in the annotations the tale of the mystery of the book and the story of the annotator's relationship.
I'm not usually one to critique books on being too open-ended or vague, but I felt that the book ended on somewhat of an anticlimax because at the last page, there were still unsolved mysteries for me - important ones, that I felt I was supposed to understand, not just an ambiguous ending. I couldn't be sure I fully understood Eric's thesis, or the current status of the old/new/new new (?) S. The authors left a lot of these things to subtext or inference because of the nature of Jen and Eric's annotations (since Jen and Eric communicated and accessed information outside of the annotations, which the reader does not have access to).
So yeah, I thought the authors left a lot of the aspects of the plot TOO vague so that the 'correct' (or even a close) interpretation could not be inferred.
I also thought the ending of S.'s narrative in the typewritten portion of the book was somewhat of an anticlimax, and I was left without a good understanding of Vévoda's ending and his place in the book.
The book, in my opinion, is worth reading just for the creative narrative style, but the plot just did not hold together for me.
The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the way it was structured. The whole internal/external narrative thing was very new and I liked the idea of combining in the annotations the tale of the mystery of the book and the story of the annotator's relationship.
I'm not usually one to critique books on being too open-ended or vague, but I felt that the book ended on somewhat of an anticlimax because at the last page, there were still unsolved mysteries for me - important ones, that I felt I was supposed to understand, not just an ambiguous ending. I couldn't be sure I fully understood Eric's thesis, or the current status of the old/new/new new (?) S. The authors left a lot of these things to subtext or inference because of the nature of Jen and Eric's annotations (since Jen and Eric communicated and accessed information outside of the annotations, which the reader does not have access to).
So yeah, I thought the authors left a lot of the aspects of the plot TOO vague so that the 'correct' (or even a close) interpretation could not be inferred.
I also thought the ending of S.'s narrative in the typewritten portion of the book was somewhat of an anticlimax, and I was left without a good understanding of Vévoda's ending and his place in the book.
The book, in my opinion, is worth reading just for the creative narrative style, but the plot just did not hold together for me.
tinator's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
4.75
Very interesting book, I feel like I need to read it again to fully understand all storylines. But the concept was very entertaining.
toastyghosty13's review against another edition
don’t have the time or gumption rn. plan to give it another shot at a later date
mgoatcheeseee's review against another edition
Idk it just felt like too much to read through a book 3 times. I read the story itself which was tense and interesting I guess but I just got antsy and it felt like it was taking too long rather than me being excited to read it.
kat_sanford's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
mistergreggles's review against another edition
4.0
Search for the 4 part podcast book club Gobbledygeek did here, of which I was a guest on two episodes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gobbledygeek/id416388039?mt=2
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gobbledygeek/id416388039?mt=2