Reviews

Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett

helianthus13666's review

I was interested in the beginning and thought I was going to love this book but when the characters changed names, gender and relationships, it got confusing real fast and I started to lose interest. Someone said that the ending is worth the headache but I just couldn't finish it through. I tried I swear. 

cornsyrup's review

challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Hm...

I appreciate what the author was going for, the concept of a story being told via a computer program that's struggling with it so it keeps replacing characters with different variations of themselves was really interesting. But ultimately, I think it fell flat for me.

I get that it was meant to be about

love in all its forms,

but the way it was written it really read to me like

Adrian/Adrianne and Antoine/Antoinette were together more out of an obligation, with Adrian/Adrianne actually wanting to be with Hector/Helen. I actually thought that would be how it would end.

It's a shame, because I love a good exploration of character and relationships! But I think it spent so long jumping between different settings that I didn't get a good feel for the relationships between the characters.

dixiet's review

4.0

I've never read anything quite like this. I couldn't put it down, and am not likely to forget it.

jaybirdt's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

linguana's review

3.0

I'm not sure about rating this at all. 3 or 3.5ish stars? This book was definitely something different.

melanieapril's review

4.0

Beautiful prose. At first the novel's repetitive structure struck me as gimmicky, but I liked how each story-cycle was more out-there than the last. Another author for whom I'm excited to see what comes next.

titusfortner's review

3.0

An interesting idea. The pacing was a bit weird; too slow in the beginning and too fast in the end. Overall an interesting story, but it was a little difficult to really connect with the characters for most of the story when they felt constantly in flux.

coris's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

4.25

mjfmjfmjf's review

2.0

It wasn't the sex. Or the gay sex. It was the overly layered style of the writing in which we visited different instances of the character again and again. It did get better when we finally reached the version of the characters that had wings. And from that point on the book was somewhat interesting. But really the author reached for something that was clearly supposed to be difficult for the reader. And it was. And it wasn't worth reaching for. Where a more straightforward version of the story would have been more interesting to me. So no.

remigves's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? Yes

3.5