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librarimans's review against another edition
This is going in the did not finish pile. I liked the concept and the structure, but not the actual writing.
mckenzierichardson's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book from Booklikes in exchange for an honest review. Like many of the other reviewers for this book, I liked it but have no idea what to make of it.At first, I just wasn't into it. Ben's ideas were too vaguely philosophical to interest me and I thought he was kind of a pretentious jerk. As the novel went on, both of those things still rang true, but I was so caught up in the events surrounding Ben that I didn't really even pay much attention to him anymore. The idea of Repossession Therapy was fascinating and I was really interested in finding out what Chimpanzee was. I couldn't stop reading. And then the end came and there were more questions left unanswered than there were answered, which was horribly frustrating.Throughout the novel, Ben emphasizes the importance of getting your audience's attention. And that's what the novel felt like: it got your attention. But it didn't go any further than that. There was something missing. There was no message driving the book. It just kind of went along. For most of the book, Ben doesn't even really do anything. He just goes along with what people tell him. There's a whole system of people working to help him and he just can't put the pieces together. Most of the time he seems too caught up in his own thinking to realize things are going on around him. It was also difficult since Ben didn't know what was going on so, as Ben was the narrator, the reader also was left in the dark. I'm sure I glossed over and minimized the importance of some scenes, but I feel like the whole thing went over my head. By the end there was so much chaos and emotion without any real logic behind it. I felt so much passion while reading it, but once I stopped I couldn't verbalize what it all meant. I went along with the mob mentality of the book, but it didn't feel like it went anywhere.Having said all that, I still think it was an interesting read even though I really cannot tell you what the book was about
szeglin's review against another edition
3.0
A short and solid dystopian novel, and of a flavor very much of our time. This will definitely hit close to home for those with student loan debt.
jenbooks's review against another edition
1.0
Collapsed economy, government recovering defaulted student loans by "repossessing" the knowledge the loans paid for, protests by masked youth? This book should have been right up my alley.
It felt disjointed, self-absorbed, pretentious; a masturbatory navel gazing story that goes nowhere, and goes there slowly.
I was going to give 2 stars, but the more I think about this novel, the less I like it.
It felt disjointed, self-absorbed, pretentious; a masturbatory navel gazing story that goes nowhere, and goes there slowly.
I was going to give 2 stars, but the more I think about this novel, the less I like it.
librarimans's review
This is going in the did not finish pile. I liked the concept and the structure, but not the actual writing.
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