Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the way the information was revealed made the story feel a bit frustrating rather than tense. the prose was mostly enjoyable, if a bit annoying millennial at times
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Thank you @littlebrown for the complementary finished copy of Bridge by Lauren Beukes! This was such a WILD read: a creepy thriller not for the faint of heart.
I read her novel The Shining Girls almost a decade ago, and this novel has a similar tone and themes. If you enjoy books with alternate realities/sliding doors/all the possible paths your life could take in a different universe, Bridge took that trope in an unexpected directions: a little horror, a dash of sci-fi, a lot of thriller, with a literary heart thoughtfully exploring mother-daughter relationships.
They are completely different, but I was reminded of how I felt reading Mexican Gothic. Which, funny enough, is mentioned in Bridge as a book one of the characters is reading! I would absolutely recommend both, and they would be perfect for creepy October reads.
I read her novel The Shining Girls almost a decade ago, and this novel has a similar tone and themes. If you enjoy books with alternate realities/sliding doors/all the possible paths your life could take in a different universe, Bridge took that trope in an unexpected directions: a little horror, a dash of sci-fi, a lot of thriller, with a literary heart thoughtfully exploring mother-daughter relationships.
They are completely different, but I was reminded of how I felt reading Mexican Gothic. Which, funny enough, is mentioned in Bridge as a book one of the characters is reading! I would absolutely recommend both, and they would be perfect for creepy October reads.
mysterious
medium-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
Bridge, daughter of a neuroscientist who became obsessed with the idea of the “dreamworm”—an object that could facilitate travel to other worlds—hunts across realities for her mother after the latter dies. There’s been a fair bit of discourse about how the multiverse story is this generation’s sf subgenre of choice, and this is a great example of a multiverse story that handwaves its science but takes its own moral and ethical implications seriously. Bridge’s increasingly single-minded quest is not presented as an unalloyed good. Her best friend Dom, a nonbinary Latinx person whose characterisation walks a line between hiply contemporary and timelessly staunch, understands far more clearly than Bridge does what the risks and consequences might be. There’s a case to be made that Dom is the hero of the story, even though Bridge is the protagonist, in the same way that Sam Gamgee is the hero of The Lord of the Rings: the bestie sine qua non, without whom the day is not saved. What we eventually discover about the way the dreamworm functions, its second- and third-order effects, pushes us to question the motives and desires of both Bridge and her mother, Jo. And then there’s Amber, a fellow dreamworm user/sufferer who’s managed to unite most of her otherselves across universes into what she calls an “Ourmind”. Chapters from her perspective have a Stephen King-like atmosphere and intensity; compelling in her monomania, Amber is terrifying, dangerous, and perfectly camouflaged across most of her timelines as a postmenopausal woman with a small, fluffy pet. Bridge has the detail and lived-in feel of a mainstream novel and the philosophical heft of all good science fiction, and the mystery structure—Where’s Jo? How does the dreamworm work?—ensures the reader is as engrossed as the characters. It’s worth checking out if you want something entertaining but smart and skillfully composed. Source: bought new (but free) with loyalty points
Overall: 3.5
Enjoyment: 3.7
Plot: 3
Characters: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Writing: 4
Intrigue: 4
Logic: 3
Would recommend for a rainy day read! The writing in the first few chapters really hooked me, but there’s a lot of jumping around between characters and timelines that could have been better executed. Loved the story, but it was slow to evolve and seemed to get away from the author at the end; I was disappointed in the characters: some of the minor characters seemed superfluous & I would have loved to have seen more relationship and emotional development between 1) Bridge and Dom and 2) Bridge and Jo.
Enjoyment: 3.7
Plot: 3
Characters: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Writing: 4
Intrigue: 4
Logic: 3
Would recommend for a rainy day read! The writing in the first few chapters really hooked me, but there’s a lot of jumping around between characters and timelines that could have been better executed. Loved the story, but it was slow to evolve and seemed to get away from the author at the end; I was disappointed in the characters: some of the minor characters seemed superfluous & I would have loved to have seen more relationship and emotional development between 1) Bridge and Dom and 2) Bridge and Jo.
"We walk through the world as if we are not, always, standing on the edge of calamity or dreadful cliche."
So, let me first start by stating that I am a fan of Lauren Beukes. I love that she changes up her genres and I think she is a wonderfully imaginative writer.
I am not a fan of time travel books. This one did not change my mind. Sadly, I could not get into this book at all -- neither the characters or the story. I was halfway through the darn thing and I was still trying to figure out what was really going on. I am sad about that, for me
So, let me first start by stating that I am a fan of Lauren Beukes. I love that she changes up her genres and I think she is a wonderfully imaginative writer.
I am not a fan of time travel books. This one did not change my mind. Sadly, I could not get into this book at all -- neither the characters or the story. I was halfway through the darn thing and I was still trying to figure out what was really going on. I am sad about that, for me