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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved the premise, and I LOVED Horatio, but I felt like the secret main character was Felicia, who I honestly cared about the least. Also, the framing of this book as some third party narrator's graduate thesis paper, years after the fact, felt weird to me. It would have been less confusing to have each chapter just tell us who the POV character was, instead of a bunch of fake citations and apologetic footnotes every time the narrator "editorialized" (aka, the author had something to add but couldn't think of a reason it would have been included in the court proceedings or Felicia's book or whatever)
I didn't always feel like I liked this book, but it's one of the few I read this year where I looked up and found out I had been reading for over an hour.
Things I liked: I'm a sucker for this framing device. It's just great.
Things I didn't like: Sometimes the prose in the neuromapper transcripts and the excerpts from Felicia's article felt a bit too samey. And a nitpicky thing: I think the way Horatio's part of the dialogue was indicated, should have been kept consistent throughout the book for clarity (i.e. also use italics+quotation marks in the excerpts).
Things I liked: I'm a sucker for this framing device. It's just great.
Things I didn't like: Sometimes the prose in the neuromapper transcripts and the excerpts from Felicia's article felt a bit too samey. And a nitpicky thing: I think the way Horatio's part of the dialogue was indicated, should have been kept consistent throughout the book for clarity (i.e. also use italics+quotation marks in the excerpts).
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall the book was enjoyable. The were some flaws and some parts were confusing, but it was a fun read. The only thing I’d say is the sexual intercourse scene between Hayden and Horatio (who is an AI) was weird and slightly ruined the book for me. For me if I ignore the sexual scenes, I can see them as friends (which I believe isn’t as weird.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Sexual content
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wanted to love this, but it just didn't work for me. If you are having this kind of 'found narrative' story, one, the character voices should be distinct. Related to that, Felicia and all the characters except Hayden really fell flat. It felt like their purpose in the story was to enact the plot. Two: making Horatio an AI and shipping him with Hamlet, I love it in theory, in practice the sex scene felt shoved in to justify the 'queer' categorization. Finally, the ending really did not hold up as a Hamlet adaptation.
I will read more from Liu in the future. I think this was ambitious, and full of good ideas, just perhaps not executed expertly.
I will read more from Liu in the future. I think this was ambitious, and full of good ideas, just perhaps not executed expertly.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
finally a motherfucker who understands shakespeare !!!!!!!
Well. I am a tad annoyed that this was described as a locked room mystery, which it certainly WAS NOT; it's made obvious quite early on.
I appreciated the melodrama of it all--in that sense, it made ties to Hamlet nicely. I don't typically gravitate towards works that are directly inspired from other works, but I kind of dug how it was done. I think by taking the story so far out setting-wise and completely shifting the genre, Liu accomplished it--it was just done really well!!
Idk if it's just me because nobody else mentioned it in their review, but I thought the whose AI non-human entity/human relationship was kinda uncomfortable and weird at a few points
I appreciated the melodrama of it all--in that sense, it made ties to Hamlet nicely. I don't typically gravitate towards works that are directly inspired from other works, but I kind of dug how it was done. I think by taking the story so far out setting-wise and completely shifting the genre, Liu accomplished it--it was just done really well!!
Idk if it's just me because nobody else mentioned it in their review, but I thought the whose AI non-human entity/human relationship was kinda uncomfortable and weird at a few points
