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secre's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I absolutely adored One Word Kill; it was one of those novels that wormed its way into my consciousness. I was less enamoured with Limited Wish; although it's still a good book, it gets more complicated and I felt all of the different threads didn't mesh together quite as well. As his future incarnation came back from the future to prod him in the right direction, now two paradoxical worlds are colliding and Nick gets flashes of multiple futures as the world tries it's very best to kill him to resolve the paradox.
It's messy and rather confusing and stretched my boundaries of disbelief to the absolute max, periodically breaking them instead. There's a moment for instance where two science geeks from the future essentially break into somewhere that should be impossible to break into. Far bigger stakes than the previous novels break in and it just kind of knocked me out of my immersion. The competing timelines also got messy, although I did like the way the novel finished up.
It's very much timey wimey, wibbly wobbly to the max and it didn't click with me as well as the original novel did. Which is a shame. That said, it's great fun to read and I liked how straight forward Lawrence is when describing the cancer elements along with recurrence and the side effects of treatment. He doesn't pull his punches and that makes for a very realistic view of the world that isn't too shocking for young readers, but definitely gives a very real view into the topic.
All in all, not quite a success for me, but I can see it being a good novel for the young adult demographic who won't struggle with the immersion elements in the same way that I did.
It's messy and rather confusing and stretched my boundaries of disbelief to the absolute max, periodically breaking them instead. There's a moment for instance where two science geeks from the future essentially break into somewhere that should be impossible to break into. Far bigger stakes than the previous novels break in and it just kind of knocked me out of my immersion. The competing timelines also got messy, although I did like the way the novel finished up.
It's very much timey wimey, wibbly wobbly to the max and it didn't click with me as well as the original novel did. Which is a shame. That said, it's great fun to read and I liked how straight forward Lawrence is when describing the cancer elements along with recurrence and the side effects of treatment. He doesn't pull his punches and that makes for a very realistic view of the world that isn't too shocking for young readers, but definitely gives a very real view into the topic.
All in all, not quite a success for me, but I can see it being a good novel for the young adult demographic who won't struggle with the immersion elements in the same way that I did.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer
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