Reviews

Users by Colin Winnette

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_lj_'s review

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

A big blind spot in my reading is prose fiction, at least recently, so I picked this up based off the description and cover from the library. It was instantly readable and I wasn't falling asleep at long-winded, flowery descriptions so I stuck with it but boy was it an incredibly dull story that feels out of touch with the world it's satirizing. Most of the book is Miles' (a creative director at a VR company) internal monologue, which is a frustrating character trait that drowns out his surroundings but dabbles in an existentialism that I don't necessarily relate to but can at least connect with. He's just so insufferable though. His wife and kids don't even have names for most of the book which reads as a joke but gets old, making it mostly a struggle to read nearly 300 pages of the mind of a worrywort. I enjoyed the dreamy ending but it was a drag getting there by the third act. I also feel that the comparison to the TV show Severance was very misleading. I know it's just marketing but this is barely sci-fi, unlike that show, and is more like a dark version of Mythic Quest, if anything. I still really loved the writing a lot though, it really got me through this story I didn't totally enjoy in just a few sittings, so I'm curious about Colin Winnette's other work!

abbz_m's review

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mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It was interesting at times, but ultimately boring.

jadekake's review

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1.0

Feels like it was written by an AI.

unread's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

this is certainly A Book, but not really one I enjoyed. the mystery setup is intriguing, but I feel like the buildup/reveal was not worth it. I generally enjoy stories that feel like dystopic tech (including Severance the TV show) but this one just wasn't it. there's something a little bit fucked up with the characters and honestly the amount of navel gazing by the protagonist doesn't make it feel better.

Content Warnings

janeaustentatious2's review

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is one of those "tech industry" books, which are books that I feel are designed to be speculative about the near future of the technology and how that will effect all of our brains. I do generally enjoy this type of fiction, and I certainly enjoyed the writing. I did feel like the plot was difficult to follow though, and I'm not sure that I left the book with a clear sense of what the author was trying to communicate about the tech industry, virtual reality, the main character, etc. Maybe something about the relationship of technology (in this instance, virtual reality experiences) and how this effects our real relationships? The protagonist, Miles, is clearly haunted by his fear of death, and I found that to be the most interesting part of the plot (the death threats, the climax, etc.) Overall, I like the writing (style, technicality), but I think that this book lost the plot a couple of times, so I'm not sure that this book landed for me overall.