Reviews

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

loudandlittle's review against another edition

3.0

Torn between a three and four star rating for this book. It's fun, comic, and tragic with a twist of the supernatural and a story line focusing on the urban black poor. I loved the characters even when I didn't like some of them and found the narrator engaging. My only gripe is with the ending which I found a little unsatisfying.

eldritchscholar's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

walstib's review

4.0

Great start, loved it through about 2/3, disappointed by the end.

flying_monkeys's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

vanessakm's review

3.0

Essentially you either get magical realism or you don't. I am the latter. So, I didn't really get this book. But the writing is so good and the protagonist is so amazingly written and realized, that I didn't entirely mind. Ricky Rice's back story was so interesting it would have made a fabulous book on its own. Instead, he is dropped into a really strange (but utterly original) story about a mysterious "research" organization staffed by former junkies and criminals that are looking for messages from God. Maybe. The story gets weirder until you finally realize the end is not going to be able to wrap things up to your satisfaction if you are looking for any kind of logical conclusion. Specifically, when I read what really happened to Ricky in Cedar Rapids that changed his life, I knew the end couldn't possibly make sense but I liked the writing so much I plowed ahead. The last 30 pages--well, you'll either get it and probably love it or you'll just be completely befuddled. I give LaValle props for at least trying to give the story some kind of satisfactory conclusion instead of ending with the equivalent of "..and it was a big old freaky mess of nonsense. The end."

I would like to give Lavalle another whirl as a writer someday. But he'd have to abandon magical/symbolic tropes for that to happen. His writing, pathos and characters are what kept me reading this story.

cmadrenas's review

5.0

I liked a book! Spoilers but: my exploded head is still being scraped off walls for the way this guy managed to pull off such an impacting examination of race, class and faith in a story where a man in an anachronistic suit gets pregnant by a swamp thing and figures he’d better shoot up some heroin to nip swampbaby in the bud. Jesus.

Sidenote, the problem is, I wonder what your average American Book Award Brought Me Here reader would’ve been thinking as they set the book down. I wonder if there’re people reading Big Machine as a narrative outlining why people (black especially) need to work harder to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and that’s worrying.

Still read this though.

mikeycade's review

inspiring reflective slow-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

4.75

This work sold me on Lavalle (if I weren't already). A focus on society's neglect of the less fortunate. One of the most powerful themes and messages is a direct quote from the story "Invite them back in". A plea to extend our hands to the at risk members of our society and bring them back in to us. 

jwmcoaching's review against another edition

2.0

I really, really, really liked this in the beginning and LaValle's writing is wonderful throughout, but unfortunately, he seemed to be continually reaching and swiping for a greater point to his plot and I kept thinking that everything was going to materialize into something much grander and entertaining and it never did.

hanita's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

miramanga's review against another edition

4.0

Having picked this at random from the eLibrary I was pleasantly surprised. It's not to my usual taste, it's a supernatural thriller and I don't do scary - but despite my heart pounding I couldn't resist turning the pages. I loved Ricky Rice the protagonist of this tale and I can't stop thinking about it though I finished it and another book since!!