Reviews

The Reader by Traci Chee

shakirae's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

rakoerose's review against another edition

4.0

This book really grew on me as I experienced it; even more so than I initially expected.

Six years on the run from these people. A lifetime in hiding. And still they’d found her.

Belief has to be slightly suspended for a world without reading or written language, but knowing just a touch about history I know people got along with just the spoken word for a long time. The concept of a secret society of Readers, of a magic to writing and reading, of a world where it is kept under strict allowances... is fascinating! Add in the interesting elements of the Sight (or the Vision) as it’s called with different castes of specialties and abilities and you’ve got one rad magic system I can’t wait to learn more about.

Sefia and Archer, the two protagonists, are delightful in how tender they are with each other. They come from such rough and intense backgrounds (Sefia’s family murdered and Archer forced to kill to live) and seeing them be gentle together juxtaposed all that in a beautiful way. They warmed my heart and I loved watching their progression over the course of the book as they began to care about each other.

I also loved the “book within a book” aspect of this novel! Sefia, reading a book to learn the letters and what they mean, shows us the story of Captain Reed and his crew. The moment where everything intertwined and revealed the true nature of this mysterious book Sefia owns was deliciously done. Not to mention we also see bits of the past in other ways that fleshes out the origins of everything. I love parsing out history and understanding in this way, but I also know it won’t be for everyone.

All in all, I came away from this surprised at how much I loved this! As a first book, it definitely felt focused on the fleshing out of everything. I’m excited for what comes next with these characters well established - it has the potential to become a series I highly recommend even more than I already do!

beccadavies's review against another edition

1.0

DNF. I listened to an hour and a half of the audio and it had me until she taught herself to read. Which shouldn’t be a big deal but without the some prior knowledge of the sounds, how does she know that a “b” has that particular sound?! Sorry Not buying it.

honorbound13's review against another edition

5.0

It's such a wonderful concept, filled with complex characters and complications that twist your heart.

readmoreyall's review against another edition

5.0

Oh The Power of a book. What an excellent YA adventure story! I can’t wait to read the second.

Twists, thrills, magic, pirates, loss and love. You’ll enjoy it.

foofers1622's review against another edition

5.0

I read this book for my libraries book club Forever Young: A young adult book club for 21 and older.
If you are an audiobook only type of person, do yourself a favor and physically read this book. There are many hidden puzzles and extra things hidden throughout it. This was a great advanture story that brings up the question if civilizations would be better without reading?! I can not wait to see what Traci has written for the next two!

alboyer6's review against another edition

3.0

The structure and technological level of a completely illiterate society just didn't seem to work for me. And then the main character could figure out how to read years later from letter blocks she had as a small child? I usually can easily suspend my disbelief but not with this title. It was well written so I'll leave it at good not great.

eyleen's review against another edition

5.0

Also das war wirklich mal ein ganz anderes Leseerlebnis!
Nicht nur die Geheimbotschaften im Text haben mir gut gefallen, sondern auch die Handlung an sich und die verschiedenen Charaktere, deren Wege sich zum Ende hin kreuzten.
Es ist alles sehr gut beschrieben ohne langatmig zu sein, man hat alles genau vor Augen und irgendwie hatte ich vom Stil her manchmal das Gefühl wirklich alte Sagen oder Märchen zu lesen - im besten Sinne!
Das Magiesystem ist faszinierend und sehr Vieles wurde bisher nur angedeutet.
Es gibt also noch viel zu entdecken und ich werde direkt mit Band 2 weitermachen.

matiel72's review against another edition

1.0

This is a book. You are the reader. Look closer. There is magic here.

Rating: 2/5

Overall: I really struggled with this book, despite the exciting little quotes-like the one above-to draw a self-proclaimed bibliophile, something just wasn't there for me from the start. The characters were everywhere and the plot was slow to start and never really picked up. I nearly DNF'd this book multiple times, especially around the 50% mark. When I wasn't wanting to DNF it I wanted to throw it at a wall because sometimes it just pissed me off. This book is a book about books, BOOKS! Which in case you didn't know, is something I love to read about.
Note: At the 50% mark I switched to the audiobook, which I didn't much like. The narrator was very emotional and breathy so it was hard to know what my emotions were.

What I Liked:
The character of Archer:I really enjoyed the character of Archer, he is an escaped slave-boy who has been forced into deathly cage fights that he can't remember who he is. He is mute, scarred and has severe PTSD and can snap your neck faster than you can say "books". He was so kind, sweet and deadly when needed. He would be a new favorite character if the story was as good as he is.
The Diversity:I also really loved the diversity this book has; the protagonist is POC, and the love interest has a disability, and there are lots of women in high profile jobs.

What I Didn't Like:
First off the pacing was really bad, the book was so freaking slow. I couldn't believe how so it is. We spend half the book plotlessly walking through a forest and the rest of it on a boat plotlessly through the ocean. Trust me, I've read slow books but this one takes the cake for slowness.
Secondly, the plot is where?! So, Sefyia has this books she's been hiding and on the run with for 6 years. In that time she's never touched it and just carries around for no reason. So when her mentor, Nin, gets dragged off and etc., she ends up alone and finally reads the DAMN book. Her goal is now to save Nin and figure what the dang book is for and what it means, and this is such a small plot to carry a whole, massive book on. She follows symbols but it seemed built on coincidences more than anything else. Thusly, there is a character in the story whose whole point is to be like "there is no such thing as coincidences" to try and tell the reader that the book wasn't one, which it was. If Sefyia/Archer hadn't just so happened to run into people or just happened to have the right people to rescue them or happen to see the right person at the exact right time... there would be no story.
To continue on the whole book thing, the book they are all fighting over and that Sefyia is hiding is about freaking pirates. Sure, I like pirate stories but not that dang much. So, okay there is more to the dang book than that, but for the first like 40ish percent, I thought that all these people were fighting over a book about soft-hearted pirates, while I was wanting to be doing anything else.
The book also had a million, poorly done, points of views. Which when done right, can be fun. But honestly half the time they didn't add anything to the story. Lon was an insufferable and conceited and his storyline still doesn't make sense and we had all the villains POV which was the worst. I wish we hadn't because I don't think I've met such whiny villains.
This book was mainly just descriptions. So many freaking descriptions. Every time a character came into the scene(no joke) you got a full description of them. As an example “She made each suture perfectly—one neat stitch after another—until they were lined up across Archer’s wounds like sharp black letters, as if every set of stitches was a healing word Doc had written to keep his skin together." I was just so damn tedious.
The villains whined so damn much, I know I mentioned this earlier but lets review. The main villain would be standing there watching Sefyia run away and was like "hmm, let me just stand here and watch instead of going and catching her while I bemuse about the girl I loved but lost". I mean come on and your surprised that Sefyia gets away? Am I supposed to be surprised?
Problematic mutism representation. I am not mute, but I have seen this in other reviews. But it think it's a very dangerous trope to make the mute boy

Spoiler

"overcome" his disability and speak in a 'finale'. I kind of (in my opinion) puts forth the idea that mutism is a choice. Ok so maybe Archer was mute because he was traumatized (it never really clarified why he was mute) but I hate the fact he had to speak to be fixed at the end. Why can't this be a disability that IS one the whole time? Why did Sefiya not care if he talked? She fully didn't acknowledge that he speaks, when this is the first time she hears him speak in the year that she's known him and she knows the trauma he's been through and that he's risked his life for millions of times. It went down kinda like this:
Sefiya: *nearly killed*
Archer: *says her name for the first time*
Sefiya:*ignores*
She just starts talking about herself and how she killed someone and doesn't even acknowledge that he spoke. It just makes her seem so self-involved.

Sefyia is this special snowflake Because of course, she is, what else can someone be other than told they are special buy every single person they meet.
The finale was just so weird to me. To a point where Sefyia and Archer set out to face the villian when they have (a) no plan,(b) Sefiya has sworn to not ever kill again, (c) they are pretty certian they are facing a person who kidnaps people and forces them into slavery to fight but yet they have no plan, (d) they have minimal weapons, (e) making sure you know this THEY HAVE NO FREAKING PLAN and (f) they just waltz on in like little lambs trusting they'll get to talk before the fight goes down.
Sefyia cries a lot. Almost all the time; besides when she's not fainting, gasping, unable to move or repeating that her father is dead for the umpteenth time.
Sefyia was obsessed with the first person she kills. Okay, this isn't that weird but I've read some pretty hardcore violence heavy books, such as [b:Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West|394535|Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West|Cormac McCarthy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453995760s/394535.jpg|1065465] (which I also hated). But I am not saying in any way that this is a bad way to write about death, it's actually good for a book to acknowledge that killing is damaging (and to even tackle survivors guilt) and how taking a life is something you can't wash yourself of. Sefyia's gets a bit too, umm creepy, for me. It gets to a point where she was walking around places and thinking about him going there and writing his name in lots of places and thinking about his laughter/smile. I get feeling sorry/bad/ traumatized but I don't get the obsession over his laugh as he drinks ale just because she saw it in a vision. She literally went over his death a bunch of time and, again as with a lot of this book, it was so tedious to read.
Tedious has been said a lot in this review but it summarizes how I feel
Thank god that Archer existed. Otherwise, I might have been asleep with this books in my face a lot more than I already was. He literally was the only thing that was decent about the book. The romance between him and Sefiya was a slow burn, beautiful and sweet. I never say a romance was the only good part of the book because it's far from my favorite part of most.
How was everyone so educated? People spoke incredibly well, they had complicated ships, towns, trade, cities and currencies. They functioned like a well-off society, but no one could read and there are no books. I just want to know how. Stories can be passed down through speech from generation to generation. But instructions on how to build a ship, an army, cities? Look at real-world history, when did our great innovations and accomplishments come? After the middle ages when reading and education were more prevalent and widespread. Also, Sefyia taught herself how to read despite not knowing the alphabet or how words sound because she's special (and yes I know the blocks and her parents but come on).

ALL IN ALL: It didn't work for me but I am extremely picky, and an English major for a reason. I'm about a plot, characters, action, and plans that make sense, of which this had none. it featured ethereal, meditative writing on what reading and was very in touch with emotions and reactions. If that is what you are looking forward then jump on it. The world building wasn't to my standards and all the illogical behavior were making my anxious mind crazy. Some of the quotes in this book will stick with me forever because of how well they encompass what it is to read but the plot, characters, and action just didn't do it for me. 2/5 stars.

moon_reader's review against another edition

4.0

IM only giving this book a 9/10 rating because I listened to the audio version of the book. The narrator’s voice combined with this soul touching descriptions of everything(aka world building) has carried my mind into a journey that I could not stop thinking about even if I had tried. The mystery is driving me to read my book copy that I already have but have not read. When I reread this book(after i purchase this gorgeous book covered book) I will be combing through every word to make sense what is going on. Caught on the riptide of the pacing of this book, and what is can only be described as my fault for setting it to 2X the normal speed, I am confused and surprised by the resolutions or the beginnings of the true mystery of this book. I loved every character and even found the motives behind the villains authentic. I am rooting for the main couple and glad they got to be cannon at the end. Will review more later when I truly reread this book.
Intense read and still feeling like I dont know what to do with myself afterwards XD.