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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
Suspenseful, a little sad. Had kind of an abrupt ending, I was left wanting to understand what became of some of the characters
I found this dreadful. It's sixty-something chapters, each from the (still third person) perspective of one of the characters. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why a given chapter is from a given perspective, unless it's literally just moving that character across the board.
The writing is very stilted. The dialogue does not flow naturally or believably, and the information we are given about internal thoughts, reactions, etc., reads like the hastily included stage directions or writer's notes in a screenplay or play.
Worst, though, every single one of the characters is loathsome to no apparent purpose. Liv, one of the adult women, has no identity, save "child of hippy-ish parents, vague person in movie development, cousin who is occasionally jealous of her cuter cousin." Nora, said cuter cousin, is worse. Early on, she's traumatized by the death of her mother (who only mothered her sporadically), then she is horny for their tour guide and vaguely alienated from her movie star husband. Don't get me started on their children. All I will say is this book needed ranked choice voting for which one of them would be eaten by a crocodile. (Sorry/not sorry for the spoiler: one of the children is—off screen, possibly because the author forgot about the character—eaten by a crocodile.)
Maybe we are supposed to find the main characters loathsome. Maybe this is an extremely cynical, satirical look at how awful progressive (mostly) white Americans become when the shit hits the fan. If that was the intention, though, it's a notable failure that all the truly horrifying things don't happen to the Americans, and they're all ultimately cool with leaving the Latin American (magical nation not specified, but it's probably Costa Rica?) teenager accused of a murder he didn't commit and his mother potentially in jeopardy for conspiracy related to the odious children's kidnapping. All the Americans go home, ultimately, and the book ends on a "swimming pools, movie stars" note.
I cannot fathom the process by which someone said, "Yes. This. We will publish this."
The writing is very stilted. The dialogue does not flow naturally or believably, and the information we are given about internal thoughts, reactions, etc., reads like the hastily included stage directions or writer's notes in a screenplay or play.
Worst, though, every single one of the characters is loathsome to no apparent purpose. Liv, one of the adult women, has no identity, save "child of hippy-ish parents, vague person in movie development, cousin who is occasionally jealous of her cuter cousin." Nora, said cuter cousin, is worse. Early on, she's traumatized by the death of her mother (who only mothered her sporadically), then she is horny for their tour guide and vaguely alienated from her movie star husband. Don't get me started on their children. All I will say is this book needed ranked choice voting for which one of them would be eaten by a crocodile. (Sorry/not sorry for the spoiler: one of the children is—off screen, possibly because the author forgot about the character—eaten by a crocodile.)
Maybe we are supposed to find the main characters loathsome. Maybe this is an extremely cynical, satirical look at how awful progressive (mostly) white Americans become when the shit hits the fan. If that was the intention, though, it's a notable failure that all the truly horrifying things don't happen to the Americans, and they're all ultimately cool with leaving the Latin American (magical nation not specified, but it's probably Costa Rica?) teenager accused of a murder he didn't commit and his mother potentially in jeopardy for conspiracy related to the odious children's kidnapping. All the Americans go home, ultimately, and the book ends on a "swimming pools, movie stars" note.
I cannot fathom the process by which someone said, "Yes. This. We will publish this."
I read this in one day due to the great pacing of the story and my need to find out what was going to happen next.
I really liked it. I imagine it would have resonated even more if I were a parent, but no complaints. Some books that have one bad thing after another leave me with an intolerable sense of dread. I found the dread rather tolerable reading this fwiw.
Super fast, engaging. My favorite guilty pleasure genre: a notch-above-a-beach-read-mystery.
My mom recommended this book for me. I was hooked from the start, though the story went somewhere I wasn’t expecting. All things considered, I think it wrapped up a little too neatly, but it was a page-turner and well-written. I’m going to read more from this author.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
A story I have not yet read. I try to only read lighthearted books but sometimes I judge covers incorrectly. This was not a lighthearted book. I suppose it was a good book if you are the type that likes to read about bad things. You really have to be okay with bad things happening to children to get through this. For those reasons I did not totally enjoy it but again, if you are into that I suppose it is a good read.
Read this book if you like 1) stories about kids being kidnapped and 2) mediocre writing.