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It was okay. Definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. It was pretty fun, also really predictable and sometimes a bit messy. But it was okay. There were many characters and some of them were really diverse and interesting. I like when a book has a lot of characters but you can still get to know each character a bit. It is the same with his Lorien series which I absolutely love.
I didn't like Sarah at all. I thought she was annoying and boring. Chiyoko was so complex and bad-ass. I was really rooting for her.
It was fun, maybe I will read the next one.. not sure yet.
I didn't like Sarah at all. I thought she was annoying and boring. Chiyoko was so complex and bad-ass. I was really rooting for her.
It was fun, maybe I will read the next one.. not sure yet.
When I first heard about Endgame: The Calling I was curious. A book with an actual scavenger hunt hidden inside? That should be awesome right? Well, no. Because when I started reading the book, I was annoyed right from the start. And even though I told myself I would read at least half of a book before deciding to DNF it, I didn't even make it to 25% with this one.
First of all, the main thing that annoyed me was the fact that there were SO. MANY. POV'S. There were twelve players, and though I didn't get to read all of their POV's, reading from five or six of them was annoying already. The authors did have a favourite one, American sweetheart Sarah. Obviously. A whole book full of diverse characters from all over the world, and they choose the white American girl. (Honestly, I don't care what skin colour the characters have (nor do I care about their sexual orientation). I just want good characters who do awesome things, and if they are black or white or brown doesn't matter to me, as long as they are written well). But in this book, none of the characters were written well.
Then there was the fact that everything was described in detail. Like, a character would be wearing a suit, just a simple suit, but the author would describe in detail what it was made of, what colour it was, what the ring on his left hand looked like and what colour the stones were on that ring. Yes, I do like it when things are described, but sometimes it just took so long for a character to be described that I just gave up and skimmed the whole thing. It was very frustrating in this book. (Just like it was frustrating in Lord of the Rings, but then again LOTR had an interesting story to tell, and I didn't really feel like that with Endgame).
And just the way the book was written was annoying to me too. Such short sentences, so many periods, and there was one character who had weird tics and blinkblink the author blinkblinkshiver the the author shiverblinkshiver would write shivershiver all the sentences blinkblinkblink like this and blinkblinkblink sometimes shivershiver sometimes he would blinkshiverblinkshiver repeat words blinkblinkshiver. I just got SO EFFING FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF THAT. And ever time the authors started a new sentence that involved the character doing or thinking something, it would be like: "Sarah sat down. Sarah loved sitting down. Sarah thought she could probably sit down for the rest of the day. Sarah this. Sarah that. Sarah why do all sentences start with your name?" You know. It was just annoying, I know it's Sarah who does all those things, seriously what's wrong with using 'she/he' sometimes.
A lot of people are already tired of hearing this, but I've got to say it: Yes it did remind me of the Hunger Games a bit. But it was also different; because of course in THG the tributes aren't allowed to leave the arena, and Endgame happened all over the world. There were clues the Players had to solve instead of just mindlessly killing each other (though that did happen). But yeah, I just thought of the Hunger Games while reading it. Sorry for those who are done with everyone comparing the two books, but hey it's just my opinion.
In the end, I disliked Endgame a lot. So much even that I gave it just one star, which I've only done to two books I've read so far (City of Glass and one of the Grimm Diary Prequel novella's). So congratulations Endgame, on becoming the third one-star rated book on my Read shelf! Now get out of my face.
First of all, the main thing that annoyed me was the fact that there were SO. MANY. POV'S. There were twelve players, and though I didn't get to read all of their POV's, reading from five or six of them was annoying already. The authors did have a favourite one, American sweetheart Sarah. Obviously. A whole book full of diverse characters from all over the world, and they choose the white American girl. (Honestly, I don't care what skin colour the characters have (nor do I care about their sexual orientation). I just want good characters who do awesome things, and if they are black or white or brown doesn't matter to me, as long as they are written well). But in this book, none of the characters were written well.
Then there was the fact that everything was described in detail. Like, a character would be wearing a suit, just a simple suit, but the author would describe in detail what it was made of, what colour it was, what the ring on his left hand looked like and what colour the stones were on that ring. Yes, I do like it when things are described, but sometimes it just took so long for a character to be described that I just gave up and skimmed the whole thing. It was very frustrating in this book. (Just like it was frustrating in Lord of the Rings, but then again LOTR had an interesting story to tell, and I didn't really feel like that with Endgame).
And just the way the book was written was annoying to me too. Such short sentences, so many periods, and there was one character who had weird tics and blinkblink the author blinkblinkshiver the the author shiverblinkshiver would write shivershiver all the sentences blinkblinkblink like this and blinkblinkblink sometimes shivershiver sometimes he would blinkshiverblinkshiver repeat words blinkblinkshiver. I just got SO EFFING FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF THAT. And ever time the authors started a new sentence that involved the character doing or thinking something, it would be like: "Sarah sat down. Sarah loved sitting down. Sarah thought she could probably sit down for the rest of the day. Sarah this. Sarah that. Sarah why do all sentences start with your name?" You know. It was just annoying, I know it's Sarah who does all those things, seriously what's wrong with using 'she/he' sometimes.
A lot of people are already tired of hearing this, but I've got to say it: Yes it did remind me of the Hunger Games a bit. But it was also different; because of course in THG the tributes aren't allowed to leave the arena, and Endgame happened all over the world. There were clues the Players had to solve instead of just mindlessly killing each other (though that did happen). But yeah, I just thought of the Hunger Games while reading it. Sorry for those who are done with everyone comparing the two books, but hey it's just my opinion.
In the end, I disliked Endgame a lot. So much even that I gave it just one star, which I've only done to two books I've read so far (City of Glass and one of the Grimm Diary Prequel novella's). So congratulations Endgame, on becoming the third one-star rated book on my Read shelf! Now get out of my face.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
this took some time to get in to but I'm glad I stuck with it. the story has a good premise and puts you into the characters minds. It was a little weird at first because it does jump from player to player but I ended up liking that aspect because I was never left wondering what was going on with other players. I'm on book 2 now and excited to see how this will turn out for the characters. And no, as others reviews have said, this is not like The Hunger Games at all. this is more futuristic and has the hint of possible alien involvement. We will see as the books go on if indeed there are aliens.
The Calling by James Frey
This concept was super cool, interesting, but it was poorly developed in my opinion.
This concept was super cool, interesting, but it was poorly developed in my opinion.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Christopher was really annoying and I want chiyoko to win
Definitely not engaging until way too far into the book and I didn't become attached to any characters. In fact, I just kept wishing more would die so the whole thing could just be over. I really did not enjoy this book.