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3.12 AVERAGE
3.12 AVERAGE
"Zwart krijt", het debuut van Christopher J. Yates, klinkt veelbelovend. Het verhaal? Zes eerstejaarsstudenten aan de universiteit van Oxford, waaronder één Amerikaanse uitwisselingsstudent, besluiten het dagdagelijkse studentenleven wat spannender te maken door het spelen van "een spel". Een selecte groep is uitverkoren om elke zondag een soort kaartspel te spelen, waarbij zowel een portie geluk als strategie bepalend zijn. Wie verliest moet een consequentie aanvaarden; vaak een of andere opdracht die de persoon in kwestie in verlegenheid brengt. Wat onschuldig en grappig begint loopt al snel uit de hand. De consequenties moeten steeds straffer worden om de vorige te kunnen overtreffen en de prille vriendschapsband wordt al snel ondermijnd door onderliggende frustraties en complottheoriëen. Het duurt dan ook niet lang voor de vriendschap stukje bij beetje begint af te brokkelen en een aantal figuren serieus aan het wankelen gaan….
Een verhaal dat doet denken aan "de verborgen geschiedenis" van Donna Tart. Een setting (jonge mensen aan de universiteit, een spannend spel waarbij men nieuwsgierig wordt naar de consequenties) die aanspreekt. Een originele verhaalstijl doordat het gebeurde deels wordt verteld in het verleden, deels in het heden - 14 jaar na de feiten - door één van de deelnemers die sinds het uit de hand lopen van het spel volledig het noorden is kwijt geraakt. Het boek heeft alles om de verwachtingen die de cover schept in te lossen.
En toch … lukt dat niet helemaal. De personages missen elke diepgang. Het verhaal komt heel moeilijk op gang. De afwisseling tussen heden en verleden werkt in het begin vooral bijzonder verwarrend en komt pas in het einde tot zijn recht. Enkele vrij onverwachte plotwendingen weten de boel te redden, maar een hoogvlieger is het zeker niet.
Een verhaal dat doet denken aan "de verborgen geschiedenis" van Donna Tart. Een setting (jonge mensen aan de universiteit, een spannend spel waarbij men nieuwsgierig wordt naar de consequenties) die aanspreekt. Een originele verhaalstijl doordat het gebeurde deels wordt verteld in het verleden, deels in het heden - 14 jaar na de feiten - door één van de deelnemers die sinds het uit de hand lopen van het spel volledig het noorden is kwijt geraakt. Het boek heeft alles om de verwachtingen die de cover schept in te lossen.
En toch … lukt dat niet helemaal. De personages missen elke diepgang. Het verhaal komt heel moeilijk op gang. De afwisseling tussen heden en verleden werkt in het begin vooral bijzonder verwarrend en komt pas in het einde tot zijn recht. Enkele vrij onverwachte plotwendingen weten de boel te redden, maar een hoogvlieger is het zeker niet.
Not my favorite but still intriguing. All psychological commentary on friends and actions. I did not understand the breakdown of “chapters” at all (kind of didn’t try to oops).
more like 2.5 stars. i wanted to like this book i really did. and it was so close to being what i thought it might be. in the end it was a good read for a vacation, but not as deep or psychological or mysterious as i had hoped. the characters just weren't quite flushed out. i like joylon in theory, but kept wondering WHY his memory didn't work so well. and i wanted to like him more to root for him more, and to understand why so many others were so drawn to him. he might have been magnetic to the other characters, but not to me. and chad, he would have been better if he was more calculating, more sinister. the mysterious game soc should have also been more evil - it was hinted that they were, but never fully revealed. and while i'm fine w/ some things being left in shadow, this just felt like we were short changed. oh well. not a total loss, but not something i would recommend for everyone.
Intriguing, but pretty depressing. The characters were great.
LOL I hated this book. I was told if I liked the Secret History that I would like this book and now I'm angry, because this totally had the bones of a book I would love and it did not deliver at all. I was interested for around the first 100 pages but then it just got progressively worse. The plot was so convoluted, the POV was confusing and difficult to follow, and I guessed the "twists" with more than half the book to go. I think this book suffered from taking itself way too seriously, and thinking it was more clever/complex than it actually was.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Disclaimer: I think my initial reading of this was slightly marred by the bizarre Kindle formatting. Lines broke off in the middle of sentences, paragraph and chapter breaks were not at all clear, et cetera. So, I think I found it more confusing than it actually is. But to the actual review:
Black Chalk is at once fascinating and frustrating. The premise is at once reminiscent of The Secret History or Gentlemen and Players but the mechanics of the deadly 'game' are never entirely clear. We know there are cards and dice involved and we know the consequences of losing--humiliation that escalates so rapidly as to become life-threatening--but we never learn how the game itself actually works, which seems a significant aspect of the story to omit/overlook. Similarly, the incentive to keep playing (or to start playing in the first place) feels underdeveloped. Money does not seem like it would be a strong enough motivator for these particular people, who spend hours arguing about who is the least privileged and ergo, the most enlightened/deserving/whatever.
What does work is the trap Yates expertly sets for his narrator--and by extension, his reader. The story is misleading from the start, but instead of leaving the reader with a feeling of being duped (the pitfall of many a plot twist), Yates slowly unravels the tapestry he initially presented. By the halfway point, you know better than to believe that anything--or anyone--is what they seem. The gameplayers themselves are a colorful and in some instances, delightful, cast of characters whose personalities blossom and clash when they're all closeted together in Jolyon's room. There are no clear heroes and no clear villains: only six peculiar, entirely plausible people. My only complaint against Yates's characterization has to do with the women. Dee and Emilia are two halves of one Oxfordian Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and they serve little function in the story except to act as prizes awarded or taken away from the men in the group (not unlike Donna Tartt's Camilla in the sausage-fest that is The Secret History--Why is it that women are so grossly under-represented in this sub-genre of academic novels? I don't know).
All in all, Black Chalk is a smart and compelling (if imperfect) read.
Black Chalk is at once fascinating and frustrating. The premise is at once reminiscent of The Secret History or Gentlemen and Players but the mechanics of the deadly 'game' are never entirely clear. We know there are cards and dice involved and we know the consequences of losing--humiliation that escalates so rapidly as to become life-threatening--but we never learn how the game itself actually works, which seems a significant aspect of the story to omit/overlook. Similarly, the incentive to keep playing (or to start playing in the first place) feels underdeveloped. Money does not seem like it would be a strong enough motivator for these particular people, who spend hours arguing about who is the least privileged and ergo, the most enlightened/deserving/whatever.
What does work is the trap Yates expertly sets for his narrator--and by extension, his reader. The story is misleading from the start, but instead of leaving the reader with a feeling of being duped (the pitfall of many a plot twist), Yates slowly unravels the tapestry he initially presented. By the halfway point, you know better than to believe that anything--or anyone--is what they seem. The gameplayers themselves are a colorful and in some instances, delightful, cast of characters whose personalities blossom and clash when they're all closeted together in Jolyon's room. There are no clear heroes and no clear villains: only six peculiar, entirely plausible people. My only complaint against Yates's characterization has to do with the women. Dee and Emilia are two halves of one Oxfordian Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and they serve little function in the story except to act as prizes awarded or taken away from the men in the group (not unlike Donna Tartt's Camilla in the sausage-fest that is The Secret History--Why is it that women are so grossly under-represented in this sub-genre of academic novels? I don't know).
All in all, Black Chalk is a smart and compelling (if imperfect) read.
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When I started, I was thinking it would be a three star. I rounded up from a 3.5. The book starts slow, but around 1/3 of the way there’s a wonderful twist, one that messes with the dark academia genre conventions, and then the book starts rolling. Some of the plot moments are a little contrived, but there’s more than enough of good ones to make up for that. I enjoyed the book.