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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
Not for me, the crisis of grief and faith and slow decline towards extremism was just hard to read, and not in a way I found personally worthwhile. Male narrator is also single-mindedly obsessed with his ex in an unpleasant and uncomfortable way
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I like character-driven works, but this was a bit too slow, circular and repetitive for me. This wasn't helped by the audiobook reader, who had a very flat monotone.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-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
dark
emotional
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
I gave up on this one. Why was Will so obsessed with Phoebe? I just couldn't care about the characters. This also isn't a good book to listen to because I didn't always catch when the story was supposedly changing voices. Part of that to me was also that it seemed like we were only learning about Phoebe through Will's eyes, even if it was a "Phoebe" chapter.
dark
emotional
tense
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
Haunting, intriguing, intense, and masterful! Super dark, and strange, in a good way. Really drew me in. Looking forward to more from this author.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There are three narrators but only one—Will—has a distinctive voice. He is a college student who has lost his faith and left Bible college after working as a youth evangelist.
Will has fallen for Phoebe, a beautiful young woman who is also struggling with a great loss— her mother’s death in a car accident where Phoebe was the driver.
Then there are the elliptical mini chapters from John Leal, a half-Korean cult leader who lures Phoebe in.
The language of the novel is distractingly ornate, polished like an over-workshopped story. The labored syntax and diction created a sense of unreality. Were we to see these characters as real or emblematic? Why all the flourishes of imagery while character development and plot languished?
Because the book was short, I finished it.
Will has fallen for Phoebe, a beautiful young woman who is also struggling with a great loss— her mother’s death in a car accident where Phoebe was the driver.
Then there are the elliptical mini chapters from John Leal, a half-Korean cult leader who lures Phoebe in.
The language of the novel is distractingly ornate, polished like an over-workshopped story. The labored syntax and diction created a sense of unreality. Were we to see these characters as real or emblematic? Why all the flourishes of imagery while character development and plot languished?
Because the book was short, I finished it.