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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW EXCITED I AM FOR THIS BOOK IT'S BEEN AT LEAST 2 YEARS SINCE I'VE READ A DAVID ARNOLD BOOK AND I MISS HIS OBSCURE AMAZING WRITING IN MY LIFE AND NOW IT'S COMING BACK AND I'M GOING TO HAVE IT AGAIN. (Also I wanna reread Mosquitoland and Kids of Appetite before this releases)
After I read it: This book was everything I wanted and more. It was, as the title states, strange, but in the best way possible. The humor was obscure, and there were so many things that happened that I was like "that would only happen in a David Arnold book" but it was awesome to read. I knew from the cover, the title, and the blurb that this book wasn't going to be your average YA novel. And it definitely was. It was one of those novels that stands out to you so much because you know you can't find anything like it from anyone else. I think that's why I love David Arnold's writing so much. It's so different, so peculiar, that it stands out to you. I also loved that this book touched A LOT on mental health and our relationships with each other. To be honest, the plot was obviously engaging, but I think the big part of this novel was the characters and they way they interact with each others. This book felt like a study, to me, of how well we know each other and our connections with our friends. It was super fascinating and I loved that. Plus, even the side characters are extremely enjoyable, which I loved because I love side characters that you grow attached to. There were also so many different aspects of this book that I loved. It was super interesting because Noah writes these "concise histories" in which he connects things in history, so it was super cool to learn things that I never would have learned before. He talks a lot about dates and how often times things in history connect which was so interesting and I loved it. Plus the book had a lot of really excellent quotes and there were a lot of moments with Noah where I could totally relate. I thought the aspect of mental health and being scared of your future was really well done. David Arnold is largely known for writing books that touch upon the subject of mental health (especially Mosquitoland) and Noah Hypnotik definitely did not lack that. It was super cool to see difficult subjects like guilt, pushing people away, fear of the future, etc to be talked about. And it was very nice because in the end Noah does get better. Plus I related to a lot of Noah's struggles. I related to pushing people away and not wanting other people to control your future and all of those things. Also, like I said before, it was really nice to see all of Noah's relationships shown as important. From his relationship with his mom to his relationship with his two best friends, I felt like all of the relationships were complex and fully fleshed out. I loved that the book almost felt like an analysis of our relationships with others. I felt like it developed the complexity of human interactions and I thought that was super neat. You see that none of Noah's relationships are perfect, which I love. Plus you see Noah realize that he does push people away/mistreat his friends sometimes and he tries to better himself and he grows to appreciate certain people more. Speaking of characters, I feel like I can't finish this review without talking about a certain one: Penny Oakman. I love her so much. She's Noah's sister and she's in 8th grade and she wears all of these strange clothes and she obsesses over movies and she cares deeply about racism and I just want to protect her. Her relationship with Noah was byfar my favorite to follow, because they have such a complicated relationship throughout the whole novel. You see that he definitely neglects her, but as the novel goes on he tries to be there for her more. Before ending this review, I'd also like to talk about the science fiction aspect of the novel. After a party and one strange night, Noah finds that small details of his life have changed. His mom now has a scar that wasn't there before, his best friend who was previously a hardcore DC fan is now a Marvel fan, etc, etc. This is the main plot of the novel (although I'd argue that the novel is more about our relationships with other people) and it's super interesting to see. In the end, it turns out that Overall, I just really loved this book. I think it was my favorite David Arnold book to date. It was strange, funny, and touched on a lot of important subjects. I highly recommend it.
After I read it: This book was everything I wanted and more. It was, as the title states, strange, but in the best way possible. The humor was obscure, and there were so many things that happened that I was like "that would only happen in a David Arnold book" but it was awesome to read. I knew from the cover, the title, and the blurb that this book wasn't going to be your average YA novel. And it definitely was. It was one of those novels that stands out to you so much because you know you can't find anything like it from anyone else. I think that's why I love David Arnold's writing so much. It's so different, so peculiar, that it stands out to you. I also loved that this book touched A LOT on mental health and our relationships with each other. To be honest, the plot was obviously engaging, but I think the big part of this novel was the characters and they way they interact with each others. This book felt like a study, to me, of how well we know each other and our connections with our friends. It was super fascinating and I loved that. Plus, even the side characters are extremely enjoyable, which I loved because I love side characters that you grow attached to. There were also so many different aspects of this book that I loved. It was super interesting because Noah writes these "concise histories" in which he connects things in history, so it was super cool to learn things that I never would have learned before. He talks a lot about dates and how often times things in history connect which was so interesting and I loved it. Plus the book had a lot of really excellent quotes and there were a lot of moments with Noah where I could totally relate. I thought the aspect of mental health and being scared of your future was really well done. David Arnold is largely known for writing books that touch upon the subject of mental health (especially Mosquitoland) and Noah Hypnotik definitely did not lack that. It was super cool to see difficult subjects like guilt, pushing people away, fear of the future, etc to be talked about. And it was very nice because in the end Noah does get better. Plus I related to a lot of Noah's struggles. I related to pushing people away and not wanting other people to control your future and all of those things. Also, like I said before, it was really nice to see all of Noah's relationships shown as important. From his relationship with his mom to his relationship with his two best friends, I felt like all of the relationships were complex and fully fleshed out. I loved that the book almost felt like an analysis of our relationships with others. I felt like it developed the complexity of human interactions and I thought that was super neat. You see that none of Noah's relationships are perfect, which I love. Plus you see Noah realize that he does push people away/mistreat his friends sometimes and he tries to better himself and he grows to appreciate certain people more. Speaking of characters, I feel like I can't finish this review without talking about a certain one: Penny Oakman. I love her so much. She's Noah's sister and she's in 8th grade and she wears all of these strange clothes and she obsesses over movies and she cares deeply about racism and I just want to protect her. Her relationship with Noah was byfar my favorite to follow, because they have such a complicated relationship throughout the whole novel. You see that he definitely neglects her, but as the novel goes on he tries to be there for her more. Before ending this review, I'd also like to talk about the science fiction aspect of the novel. After a party and one strange night, Noah finds that small details of his life have changed. His mom now has a scar that wasn't there before, his best friend who was previously a hardcore DC fan is now a Marvel fan, etc, etc. This is the main plot of the novel (although I'd argue that the novel is more about our relationships with other people) and it's super interesting to see. In the end, it turns out that
Spoiler
he was under a simulation for "3 months" (actually 6 hours). This was so so interesting to see because eventually you see that everything was so well planned out and David Arnold clearly intended this from the beginning, which is so cool. Small things that you previously overlooked turn out to have a lot of significance, which was really clever. I know some people won't like the concept that the whole novel is essentially (for the most part, at least) a dream. But I think it was really well done. David Arnold didn't just make it a way to end the novel mysteriously, it actually had purpose. The simulation ended up largely affecting Noah and showing him ways to be different and to do better. Plus, the dream time is extremely fascinating and it isn't just a disappointment when you find out it was a simulation. Also the whole science was super cool to read!
Wow... That is what I would call a reading experience!@iamdavidarnold is officially my favourite #yaauthor ...he is 3 for 3 for me. Now I will have to say that #thestrangefascinationsofnoahhypnotik required me to really suspend reality and allow myself to be open to go on the most unexpected and very "strange" adventure, but I did, and I LOVED it. I loved the 'exerpts from Chapter 17 of Mila Henry's Year of Me' and the fact that this creative author went to the trouble of creating an actual website for this fictitious author (with an insta link leading back to his own page... Haha!!clever) I loved the "a concise history of me" parts getting to peek into Noah's own writing, I loved listening to Arnold's band Cinemacycle's Diagrams with Little Arrows inspired by Noah Hypnotik (purposefully misspelled to help your brand 😂) I also listened to the playlist that @penguinteen put together on Spotify which was an excellent companion to reading this📖and you may ask if someone could dork out any further here.. and I will say yes, yes I can... Because I also listened to and Loved the amazing narrative of @hellomlc who I read along with...this audiobook was PERFECTION, but there are too many awesome little additions in this book not to have the hard copy on hand!! I loved all the pop culture references... And since I'm in my 40's I knew them well. And finally, there were so many quotes and paragraphs that I loved and book-darted in this book, that I will share a few in my comments ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #kerisreading2019 kerisreading2019 #monthlyyaormiddlegraderead @lochapp read this author ...#mosquitoland , #kidsofappetite , Noah.
I had high expectations for this book, and I was not disappointed. Mark as a must read!
I had my fair share of YA contemporaries, some good and some bad, most of them dangling in the middle. I searched through my Goodreads YA shelf to see what other contemporary has 5 star quality for me and found only two other books – "The perks of being a wallflower" (of course, the legendary YA novel that actually is very good) and "Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe" (also a very good book).
What makes these books great is that I can really feel that they leave an impact on a person reading it, more so on its targeted audience which is young adults and teenagers. And in my opinion that is the notion The strange fascinations of Noah Hypnotik leaves. It is less about the story and more about a feeling it awakes inside of you.
“I romanticize my past and I romanticize my future; right now is always the bleakest moment of my life.”
This isn’t to bash the story by any means, this story is good. It has a main plot and sub-plot (all the things that happen in Noah’s head during the hypnosis), it is all tied together nicely and even the reader feels “Trippy” or under the same hypnosis as the main character. The hypnotist did have his own agenda with the hypnosis, it wasn’t necessarily a good thing but it did turn out to help Noah change himself.
Our main character is in the age when change is happening – he is finishing high school and in come the college applications, the fear of being separated from his friends and the feeling of not really knowing yourself and what you aspire to be in the world. The things we all go through in life basically.
Noah is afraid of making the step towards all of those decisions, he knows decisions always impact the future, in a way not making decisions is his way of freezing time and escaping for a little bit. That’s why he wears the same clothes every day, why his room and everything in his life is organized, why he fakes an injury to prolong his decision on which college to choose or to choose any college at all.
The book did capture what is happening inside the mind of such individuals and I do think Noah is a relatable character.
In the end, he did learn that change is hard but necessary and a normal part of life, he decides to live in the moment rather than overthink everything (as shown in the last chapter of the novel).
In conclusion, I liked this book very much and would recommend it to any YA or teen and everyone in between.
What makes these books great is that I can really feel that they leave an impact on a person reading it, more so on its targeted audience which is young adults and teenagers. And in my opinion that is the notion The strange fascinations of Noah Hypnotik leaves. It is less about the story and more about a feeling it awakes inside of you.
“I romanticize my past and I romanticize my future; right now is always the bleakest moment of my life.”
This isn’t to bash the story by any means, this story is good. It has a main plot and sub-plot (all the things that happen in Noah’s head during the hypnosis), it is all tied together nicely and even the reader feels “Trippy” or under the same hypnosis as the main character. The hypnotist did have his own agenda with the hypnosis, it wasn’t necessarily a good thing but it did turn out to help Noah change himself.
Our main character is in the age when change is happening – he is finishing high school and in come the college applications, the fear of being separated from his friends and the feeling of not really knowing yourself and what you aspire to be in the world. The things we all go through in life basically.
Noah is afraid of making the step towards all of those decisions, he knows decisions always impact the future, in a way not making decisions is his way of freezing time and escaping for a little bit. That’s why he wears the same clothes every day, why his room and everything in his life is organized, why he fakes an injury to prolong his decision on which college to choose or to choose any college at all.
The book did capture what is happening inside the mind of such individuals and I do think Noah is a relatable character.
In the end, he did learn that change is hard but necessary and a normal part of life, he decides to live in the moment rather than overthink everything (as shown in the last chapter of the novel).
In conclusion, I liked this book very much and would recommend it to any YA or teen and everyone in between.
This was a little too paint-by-numbers of a YA book for me - overly articulate male narrator trying to find his way in the world via obsessions and narcissism, before learning his lesson and becoming a Better Person. The plot twist (or two) at the end were very disappointing. It was a slog to get through and the journey wasn't worth the result.
This book. How do I describe this book?
Confusing. I found myself wandering around pages and constantly re-reading to try and understand what was going on. Now, I'm not saying that it's bad for a book to be a challenging read, but this was almost ridiculously bewildering. The thing with his back is never fully explained by Noah, so that whole plot point just made me more confused about him as a character.
The excerpts from Noah's favorite author felt unnecessary to me. Because both the novel and those excerpts were actually written by the same author, the writing styles were very similar and they didn't stand out when they should have.
Also, the fact *spoiler* that it's all a hallucination and nothing that happened for like 75% of the book was real was, I'm sorry, so dumb. The literal embodiment of the 'it was all a dream' trope. Because of this, none of the characters ever really canonically developed and they all sort of felt flat to me (well except his little sister, she was a gem and the main reason I kept reading). I couldn't understand anyone's motivations and much of the conversation dragged on with no real purpose. All the long drawn-out conversations between Noah and his two friends about like peach gummies and the meaning of the universe?? Those conversations do happen between real teenagers, but they have a more significant lead-up, and the writer has to earn them, not just throw them in every 3 pages.
So yeah, this book really disappointed me. The concept is interesting but it wasn't used particularly well in my opinion.
Confusing. I found myself wandering around pages and constantly re-reading to try and understand what was going on. Now, I'm not saying that it's bad for a book to be a challenging read, but this was almost ridiculously bewildering. The thing with his back is never fully explained by Noah, so that whole plot point just made me more confused about him as a character.
The excerpts from Noah's favorite author felt unnecessary to me. Because both the novel and those excerpts were actually written by the same author, the writing styles were very similar and they didn't stand out when they should have.
Also, the fact *spoiler* that it's all a hallucination and nothing that happened for like 75% of the book was real was, I'm sorry, so dumb. The literal embodiment of the 'it was all a dream' trope. Because of this, none of the characters ever really canonically developed and they all sort of felt flat to me (well except his little sister, she was a gem and the main reason I kept reading). I couldn't understand anyone's motivations and much of the conversation dragged on with no real purpose. All the long drawn-out conversations between Noah and his two friends about like peach gummies and the meaning of the universe?? Those conversations do happen between real teenagers, but they have a more significant lead-up, and the writer has to earn them, not just throw them in every 3 pages.
So yeah, this book really disappointed me. The concept is interesting but it wasn't used particularly well in my opinion.
Noah is about to start his senior year of high school. His best friends are two twins - Alan and Val Rosa-Haas. The three of them form "the perfect triangle". And yet he is slowly drifting away from them.
He's a swimmer and has a couple of potential scholarships if they can figure out his back problem and get him back in shape.
Noah is unhappy with where his life is taking him, and one night at a party, he follows a strange kid home and he gets hypnotized. Now everything is a little bit different. Alan was always a Marvel guy, but now he's in to DC. Val liked to recreate movie posters on Instagram, but now she likes to do album covers. His friends watch Seinfeld reruns every night instead of Friends.
But the things that stay the same are his "strange fascinations" like "old man goiter" who Noah sees taking daily walks.
This is one of those books about finding yourself. About figuring out what you want instead of going along with the machine. I feel like I would've loved it in college and it took me back to those days of having the world ahead of you and not being sure what to do with it.
He's a swimmer and has a couple of potential scholarships if they can figure out his back problem and get him back in shape.
Noah is unhappy with where his life is taking him, and one night at a party, he follows a strange kid home and he gets hypnotized. Now everything is a little bit different. Alan was always a Marvel guy, but now he's in to DC. Val liked to recreate movie posters on Instagram, but now she likes to do album covers. His friends watch Seinfeld reruns every night instead of Friends.
But the things that stay the same are his "strange fascinations" like "old man goiter" who Noah sees taking daily walks.
This is one of those books about finding yourself. About figuring out what you want instead of going along with the machine. I feel like I would've loved it in college and it took me back to those days of having the world ahead of you and not being sure what to do with it.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes