The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara

3.7 AVERAGE

abbyhays's review against another edition

4.0
adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
nmirra's profile picture

nmirra's review against another edition

3.25
adventurous informative reflective medium-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
The novel is four different timelines braided together: King Rao's childhood, his creation of the Coconut company with his wife, Athena's childhood with him up to her escape to Bainbridge Island, and then Athena in the "present" moment relaying these threads. The final thread is given the least space, which robs the whole book of some power because everything you are reading has a backstory quality to it. 

In the end, the book has some interesting, melancholy ideas about technology and social media, and the human instinct to witness and preserve our life even in the face of human-made threats to our existence. But they are intertwined with a plot that doesn't quite get off the ground.

reading_rambles33's review against another edition

4.75
adventurous challenging reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

bethpreston's review against another edition

4.0
adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

karireads's review against another edition

4.5
emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
linguisticali's profile picture

linguisticali's review against another edition

3.0
challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
This was nearly a DNF for me but it came together well in the end. As a dystopia it was well thought through. I could have done with more structure and plot. 
aalderman8's profile picture

aalderman8's review

4.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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: Complicated

ess_dee's review against another edition

3.0
adventurous challenging dark informative 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
bookish_matcha's profile picture

bookish_matcha's review against another edition

2.5
adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

jeremyanderberg's review against another edition

2.0
Don't really know what the point was. Very slow and the author leaned into the wrong storylines.