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reflective
sad
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
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fantastic novel told through multiple, non-repeating narrators. Which ultimately disappointed, as I wanted to know more about the initial one. Oh well.
I get why people are loving this. The structure is very impressive, and Egan writes very well about dashed dreams and the like. And yet, it didn't always hang together for me. Despite the connections between all the characters, sometimes this just read like a bunch of short stories.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
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
I absolutely cannot believe this book won the Pulitzer Prize
slow-paced
My first piece of advice is don’t listen to this book on Audible.
Not only was I challenged to engage with the story because of the narrator (I don’t think she was the right choice for this book), but the interwoven elements were hard to catch up with because I wasn’t physically reading the story.
I also didn’t realize that it would soon delve into speculative fiction towards the end.
I appreciated the layers of the story, and how each chapter introduced a new character who was connected to a character we already met. But, it was hard to keep up with the different characters, and sometimes you had to wait well into the end of a chapter for the connection to be revealed.
I also had a hard time keeping the time periods straight, as there wasn’t much in way of context clues about which era we were in - and then it went into near future and dystopian futures which was not expected. There are also one or two chapters that didn’t translate well to Audiobook at all. Like the one where a young girl is giving a slide deck presentation of her life and then spends 20 minutes talking about the length and “pause power” of songs.
But once I realized what the book was, I did enjoy the multiple layers and connections.
Not only was I challenged to engage with the story because of the narrator (I don’t think she was the right choice for this book), but the interwoven elements were hard to catch up with because I wasn’t physically reading the story.
I also didn’t realize that it would soon delve into speculative fiction towards the end.
I appreciated the layers of the story, and how each chapter introduced a new character who was connected to a character we already met. But, it was hard to keep up with the different characters, and sometimes you had to wait well into the end of a chapter for the connection to be revealed.
I also had a hard time keeping the time periods straight, as there wasn’t much in way of context clues about which era we were in - and then it went into near future and dystopian futures which was not expected. There are also one or two chapters that didn’t translate well to Audiobook at all. Like the one where a young girl is giving a slide deck presentation of her life and then spends 20 minutes talking about the length and “pause power” of songs.
But once I realized what the book was, I did enjoy the multiple layers and connections.