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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
A surprising number of eyeballs get punctured in this book.
I had no idea what the book was about when I started reading, which is apparently a super fun way to read a book...! The cover also gives away nothing. I went in anticipating some time-loop shenanigans and ended up with mind-controlling octopuses and murder, so much murder.
The science stuff was lame, but I loved that literally everyone died. Great stuff.
I had no idea what the book was about when I started reading, which is apparently a super fun way to read a book...! The cover also gives away nothing. I went in anticipating some time-loop shenanigans and ended up with mind-controlling octopuses and murder, so much murder.
The science stuff was lame, but I loved that literally everyone died. Great stuff.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Weirdly sexual throughout, full of gratuitous violence and unnecessary gore, and pointless misogyny. The author has no sense for pacing, the characters are shallow, and the ending is predictable and unsatisfying. The acknowledgement says that the author repeatedly abandoned his wife and child to go write this novel in some hotel rooms, and apparently it took him 12 years to produce it. Honestly, I don't know why people kept encouraging him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury
I won this book from a Goodreads Giveaway so I wasn’t too sure what to expect but I will say I was thoroughly surprised. I was hesitant that it would have the feel of a hunger games/divergent teenagers struggling to stay alive feel to it but that’s not what I got at all. I flew through this book because of how engaging it was and how it kept me on the edge of my seat. Odd book all around but kept me coming back for more.
Reminded me a lot of Cell by Stephen King. Distopian technology.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
The Loop is one of those books that started out strong and then faded into total WTF? territory. For the vast majority of this novel, I was planning on rating around 4 stars, in fact, I had a lot of qualms with rating it 3 stars, but that weird ending solidified the 3.
I think there's a lot of potential in The Loop, and while it does read very much like Stranger Things meets 28 Days Later, it still felt very captivating and original. The Loop is the tale of a bioweapon gone wrong told through the eyes of the middle class's teenagers. This is extremely important, as for some reason most of the infected seemed to target infecting the rich kids and pretty much attempt to murder everyone else, so at the same time, I guess this is also a novel about class. And that's where things start to get a little bizarre.
The story follows our protagonist, Lucy. Lucy was born in Peru and adopted after her alcoholic parents died in a horrific accident. Lucy, however, has a real chip on her shoulder because she's one of the few people of color in this tiny Oregon town. However, her adoptive parents seem awesome and loving and pretty well-off. Lucy partners up with her best friend Bucket, whose real name is Bakhit, but his parents (and therefore everyone around him) call him Bucket as a sort of coping mechanism. (This angle I find really difficult to believe.) Bucket lives in a gated community. And finally, they meet up with Danny Brewer (who is actually the only kid in this story who is legitimately poor). Brewer is a 16-year-old drug dealer who lives in a busted trailer park and likes to blow things up.
I think my biggest issue with The Loop starts with Lucy. She's just so unlikable. She is incredibly ungrateful for the new life that she has. For someone who is so torn up about being made fun of, she's also extremely judgmental. She really hates on Brewer the first time he's mentioned in the story and she does so because people have spread awful rumors about him and she bought into the hype. She's a total hypocrite. She's also a murderer. She violently attacks many people for survival purposes throughout this story, which is fine, but it's her inner thoughts that are disturbing. She loves killing people, and several times contemplates murder suicide as her way to get out of this increasingly bad situation. She reads as completely unnerving and cold. Luckily, Bucket, who comes off as completely shallow and sex-obsessed, is there to balance her because he is just so damn boring for the entire story.
I don't want to hate on this book too much, as I did like a large part of it. The science in The Loop I found fascinating, and I'm a sucker for anything octopus-related. I also really loved Brewer and the two record store cashiers, Judah and Toni. These were the realest characters in the entire story. They were all completely flawed and not in great situations, but they were also good people with well-developed, believable stories. I get the feeling the author related more to these three characters than any other story line because they're the only ones who felt tangible. I've definitely met a Brewer and a Jonah and a Toni. I have never met a Lucy.
+++SPOILERS+++
The octopus thing was cool, the rip off of Signs was not. I also didn't like how characters were constantly killed off left and right after they had only been introduced for like 10-40 pages. Emmet, Steve, Toni, Marisol, Ada, Judah, Jake, etc. All of these characters felt like single-serving friends, where their only purpose ended up being the expendable kill as to not hurt anyone with decent plot armor. And in the end, none of it mattered. None of their violent, tragic deaths mattered because (I'm sure Lucy loves this) no one got out alive. The whole book turns into a suicide mission, and by the end, when their successful, I just no longer cared.
There were so many plot holes that brought the reader to this conclusion and I didn't buy an ounce of it, especially when Lucy allowed the octopus thing to attach to her neck. Absolutely none of that weird poetry Jeremy Robert Johnson used meant anything to me and it really undid a lot of the science he built up. *Oh, so if I think hard enough, I can break through a satellite blockage and tell the scientists who actually have no idea this is going on, even though they sent the military to block off the town, that something has gone super fucking wrong.* Yeah, sure. It was just bad, lazy writing that led to death. I could go on about the plot holes, including all three patient zero characters in this novel, especially Jason, but I will let that go for sake of time.
No escape, no redemption, nothing. Just death, which apparently was a relief for a character who literally only had a bad 12 hours. TWELVE HOURS! That's how much time passes from the beginning of the octopus rage zombie takeover to everyone's death, and here's Lucy just RESIGNED to dying because life suddenly got harder. I just can't stand this concept. Brewer was cool. The premise was cool. Everything else ended in infuriating fire and flames. The end. (Wow, now I no longer have any regrets over giving this one three stars. Read at your own risk.)
I think there's a lot of potential in The Loop, and while it does read very much like Stranger Things meets 28 Days Later, it still felt very captivating and original. The Loop is the tale of a bioweapon gone wrong told through the eyes of the middle class's teenagers. This is extremely important, as for some reason most of the infected seemed to target infecting the rich kids and pretty much attempt to murder everyone else, so at the same time, I guess this is also a novel about class. And that's where things start to get a little bizarre.
The story follows our protagonist, Lucy. Lucy was born in Peru and adopted after her alcoholic parents died in a horrific accident. Lucy, however, has a real chip on her shoulder because she's one of the few people of color in this tiny Oregon town. However, her adoptive parents seem awesome and loving and pretty well-off. Lucy partners up with her best friend Bucket, whose real name is Bakhit, but his parents (and therefore everyone around him) call him Bucket as a sort of coping mechanism. (This angle I find really difficult to believe.) Bucket lives in a gated community. And finally, they meet up with Danny Brewer (who is actually the only kid in this story who is legitimately poor). Brewer is a 16-year-old drug dealer who lives in a busted trailer park and likes to blow things up.
I think my biggest issue with The Loop starts with Lucy. She's just so unlikable. She is incredibly ungrateful for the new life that she has. For someone who is so torn up about being made fun of, she's also extremely judgmental. She really hates on Brewer the first time he's mentioned in the story and she does so because people have spread awful rumors about him and she bought into the hype. She's a total hypocrite. She's also a murderer. She violently attacks many people for survival purposes throughout this story, which is fine, but it's her inner thoughts that are disturbing. She loves killing people, and several times contemplates murder suicide as her way to get out of this increasingly bad situation. She reads as completely unnerving and cold. Luckily, Bucket, who comes off as completely shallow and sex-obsessed, is there to balance her because he is just so damn boring for the entire story.
I don't want to hate on this book too much, as I did like a large part of it. The science in The Loop I found fascinating, and I'm a sucker for anything octopus-related. I also really loved Brewer and the two record store cashiers, Judah and Toni. These were the realest characters in the entire story. They were all completely flawed and not in great situations, but they were also good people with well-developed, believable stories. I get the feeling the author related more to these three characters than any other story line because they're the only ones who felt tangible. I've definitely met a Brewer and a Jonah and a Toni. I have never met a Lucy.
+++SPOILERS+++
The octopus thing was cool, the rip off of Signs was not. I also didn't like how characters were constantly killed off left and right after they had only been introduced for like 10-40 pages. Emmet, Steve, Toni, Marisol, Ada, Judah, Jake, etc. All of these characters felt like single-serving friends, where their only purpose ended up being the expendable kill as to not hurt anyone with decent plot armor. And in the end, none of it mattered. None of their violent, tragic deaths mattered because (I'm sure Lucy loves this) no one got out alive. The whole book turns into a suicide mission, and by the end, when their successful, I just no longer cared.
There were so many plot holes that brought the reader to this conclusion and I didn't buy an ounce of it, especially when Lucy allowed the octopus thing to attach to her neck. Absolutely none of that weird poetry Jeremy Robert Johnson used meant anything to me and it really undid a lot of the science he built up. *Oh, so if I think hard enough, I can break through a satellite blockage and tell the scientists who actually have no idea this is going on, even though they sent the military to block off the town, that something has gone super fucking wrong.* Yeah, sure. It was just bad, lazy writing that led to death. I could go on about the plot holes, including all three patient zero characters in this novel, especially Jason, but I will let that go for sake of time.
No escape, no redemption, nothing. Just death, which apparently was a relief for a character who literally only had a bad 12 hours. TWELVE HOURS! That's how much time passes from the beginning of the octopus rage zombie takeover to everyone's death, and here's Lucy just RESIGNED to dying because life suddenly got harder. I just can't stand this concept. Brewer was cool. The premise was cool. Everything else ended in infuriating fire and flames. The end. (Wow, now I no longer have any regrets over giving this one three stars. Read at your own risk.)
dark
tense
slow-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
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes