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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
"Don't expect me to instantly disassemble and leave you simply awash in revelations concerning my deep, personal self. Go ahead and chalk up this reticence to some deep, secret shame on my part, but that's not the case.
I may not have been educated beyond the seventh grade, may be insufferably naive and lack solid workplace experience, but I'm not so desperate for attention that I feel compelled to share my most intimate, inner blah, blah, blah."
I may not have been educated beyond the seventh grade, may be insufferably naive and lack solid workplace experience, but I'm not so desperate for attention that I feel compelled to share my most intimate, inner blah, blah, blah."
"Dear Satan, it's me Madison..." If you read Blume that will be familiar. Pretty good although I could have done without the repeated "yes I know the word______, I may be 13 and dead but I'm not stupid" sentences over and over. If it's a reference, I missed it. If it's not, it's just plain annoying. Otherwise it wasn't bad, not great- middle of the road for me.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I couldn't finish this. I tried, but I found myself eye rolling too much and caring too little.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"In Hell, it's our attachments to a fixed identity that torture us."
I feel like Palahniuk has interesting ideas but then just falls flat on the ideas. Like 13 year old Madison Spencer arriving in Hell and finding a crew of sinners to wander and explore sounds great right? Who doesn't want to explore and see hellscapes like the sea of wasted sperm or the dunes of rusty razor blades as various demons from every culture are encountered? But the story is all over the place and we only get a tiny bit of that before the crew end up in the call center, yes all telemarketing is done from Hell in this world, and we proceed to spend more than a third of the novel here and the crew are relegated to background characters. After Maddy slowly remembers how she actually dies she then sulks before flipping and taking out history's greatest villians and building up an army to take over Hell. Then Satan throws a twist and basically makes the story pointless. There were also points were he had characters do things just to move the plot along without us ever knowing they could do it. Like Babbette just walking into Hell HQ and demanding stuff out of nowhere after all we have seen of her is as the dumb blonde character.
There is his usual social commentary on things like hypocrisy using Madison's rich movie star parents to do this. They have the save the earth mentality but then own a house in every country that they visit on their private jet. Will adopt kids to show off how caring they are but will get rid of them if they aren't useful, etc. But while this is there it is drowned out by Madison saying "big" words only to tell us yes I know what tenacious means even though I am 13 years old over and over again.
Overall this was a big meh for me and I don't see myself picking up the sequel any time soon if at all.
I feel like Palahniuk has interesting ideas but then just falls flat on the ideas. Like 13 year old Madison Spencer arriving in Hell and finding a crew of sinners to wander and explore sounds great right? Who doesn't want to explore and see hellscapes like the sea of wasted sperm or the dunes of rusty razor blades as various demons from every culture are encountered? But the story is all over the place and we only get a tiny bit of that before the crew end up in the call center, yes all telemarketing is done from Hell in this world, and we proceed to spend more than a third of the novel here and the crew are relegated to background characters. After Maddy slowly remembers how she actually dies she then sulks before flipping and taking out history's greatest villians and building up an army to take over Hell. Then Satan throws a twist and basically makes the story pointless. There were also points were he had characters do things just to move the plot along without us ever knowing they could do it. Like Babbette just walking into Hell HQ and demanding stuff out of nowhere after all we have seen of her is as the dumb blonde character.
There is his usual social commentary on things like hypocrisy using Madison's rich movie star parents to do this. They have the save the earth mentality but then own a house in every country that they visit on their private jet. Will adopt kids to show off how caring they are but will get rid of them if they aren't useful, etc. But while this is there it is drowned out by Madison saying "big" words only to tell us yes I know what tenacious means even though I am 13 years old over and over again.
Overall this was a big meh for me and I don't see myself picking up the sequel any time soon if at all.