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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
I'll just echo the blurb from Ann Patchett on the front cover: "Smart and thrilling and impossible to put down." Also, this didn't make me want to take a cruise anytime soon.
Changed my rate from 3 to 4 stars after letting it soak in; this book is more unsettling in hindsight. Up close, it seems a standard adventure-turned-perilous with a healthy dose of rich vs. poor.
However after stepping back, it feels like more than that. The book only follows the opinions of those in the story, but extrapolate further and itѓ??s clear the divide between the haves and have nots, the plight of the disenfranchised and our own skewed perspective of the world.
Solid read. Would make a good movie.
However after stepping back, it feels like more than that. The book only follows the opinions of those in the story, but extrapolate further and itѓ??s clear the divide between the haves and have nots, the plight of the disenfranchised and our own skewed perspective of the world.
Solid read. Would make a good movie.
There was a lot of suspense in this book - my wanting to know what happens next...but also not wanting to know because it couldn't be good. Don't read this if you are going on a cruise with kids. It is sadly a not totally unrealistic story of what could happen when things go wrong - both as a child and an adult.
I really enjoyed this book. I finished it in less than 24 hours and didn't want to put it down at any point in that time. It was an interesting story and I loved how it was told through different perspectives. There were lots of layers to this story and not only did you stay hooked to the story, the characters were interesting too. I can definitely see this being made into a movie.
I've had so many bad books lately and given up on them because they were a chore to get through and this one was a pleasant surprise - a total page turner from the moment I started. The book didn't get really interesting until the families got off the ship and the kids were separated from their parents but even before that it's interesting enough. This is a good fun summer read.
This book is about kids that go missing. I have no idea why I ever thought that would be enjoyable to read. It's a very bizarre story that stressed me out!
A longtime fan of Meloy's other novels, I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. There are some poignant meditations on the burdens and pains of parenthood and about how radically imbalanced the world is. There is one particular reflection, near the end, about how much easier it is to encourage assertiveness in a female child if said child is white and privileged. I kept reading the novel because of these little flash points that spoke to me, but overall, there was so much that felt off. The main characters are loathsome, for starters. That these moneyed Americans, even the children, who stumble cluelessly into a terrible situation, are thoroughly unlikeable and incapable of seeing beyond their own noses is probably the point. Nevertheless, I found it particularly irksome that the very worst things in the novel, such as rape and death and unfathomable loss, only seem to happen to the Latin American characters. That some of the other Latin American characters came across the page as stereotyped and/or lacking depth versus the North American characters added to my frustration with the book. Much as the author seems to be criticizing the world's imbalance in some ways in this novel, her narrative seems to reinforce it. This could have been the kind of book that makes one think, "there but for the grace of God go I," but instead I found myself so deeply irritated by the behavior of the American characters that it made it difficult to continue reading. The ending, in addition, was a disappointment.
Rounding up a little, because I would call this a thriller, and I always end up hating thrillers, so props to this one. I could not put it down, and I loved that it didn't follow a neat path plot-wise. She doesn't shy away from really messy turns here. This is one time I'd love to chat with the author because I want to know if she hated Gunther like I hated Gunther. This was really interesting and insightful and gripping and I could not put it down.