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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Secret History backdrop, Piranesi prose, Home-Fire plot
I usually don't leave reviews for books but I have a lot of thoughts on this book I just have to share.
I picked this book up on a whim when I spotted it on sale at Powell's, and I was driven by a desire to support Asian authors despite the premise of the book not being something I am usually interested in.
The book is certainly interesting, due to the unique perspectives and premise. However, I struggled to remain interested in the book as I disliked all of the characters. I understand that characters should not be perfect, but I lost interest in learning more about these characters' lives and I did not have a character I was rooting for. It made it really difficult for me to push through the book.
Additionally, halfway through the book, the characters' actions became quite predictable and they loss character development. They are all damaged people who do self destructive things that also harm others, so their self destructive acts were not surprising at all. I found myself bored with the novel.
Overall, Kwon's prose is intriguing, but the plot and characters fell really flat. She has great ideas but in this case they were not executed well in my opinion. I am willing to give her future works another shot if they interest me.
***Spoiler ahead!!*** I really did not like how Kwon wrote Will raping Phoebe. While Julian shames Will for it and Phoebe leaves him because of it, the fact that the novel is from Will's point of view makes it seem like it was an okay thing for him to do, that it wasn't a big deal for him to do that as Will doesn't really reflect on this as much as I think he should have. It kind of felt like an unnecessary inclusion of sexual violence. Anything else would have been a suitable final straw for their relationship.
I picked this book up on a whim when I spotted it on sale at Powell's, and I was driven by a desire to support Asian authors despite the premise of the book not being something I am usually interested in.
The book is certainly interesting, due to the unique perspectives and premise. However, I struggled to remain interested in the book as I disliked all of the characters. I understand that characters should not be perfect, but I lost interest in learning more about these characters' lives and I did not have a character I was rooting for. It made it really difficult for me to push through the book.
Additionally, halfway through the book, the characters' actions became quite predictable and they loss character development. They are all damaged people who do self destructive things that also harm others, so their self destructive acts were not surprising at all. I found myself bored with the novel.
Overall, Kwon's prose is intriguing, but the plot and characters fell really flat. She has great ideas but in this case they were not executed well in my opinion. I am willing to give her future works another shot if they interest me.
***Spoiler ahead!!*** I really did not like how Kwon wrote Will raping Phoebe. While Julian shames Will for it and Phoebe leaves him because of it, the fact that the novel is from Will's point of view makes it seem like it was an okay thing for him to do, that it wasn't a big deal for him to do that as Will doesn't really reflect on this as much as I think he should have. It kind of felt like an unnecessary inclusion of sexual violence. Anything else would have been a suitable final straw for their relationship.
I found it quite haunting and incredibly disturbing. It was a difficult read — to go into such depth of the characters’ loss. Their damage seems irreparable.
At first, the writing was seriously frustrating to read, with the jumps from first person to third person to second person within one character’s chapter. But the intricate and complex narrative actually makes sense in the end.
Would recommend, but not to anyone/everyone.
At first, the writing was seriously frustrating to read, with the jumps from first person to third person to second person within one character’s chapter. But the intricate and complex narrative actually makes sense in the end.
Would recommend, but not to anyone/everyone.
What a strange book. I really liked it though, tells the story of how someone ends up joining a cult.
I am…speechless? My brain had to work very hard to follow along and actually digest what I was reading. This is a VERY interesting read and I’ve never read anything like it before. The way the author writes is perplexing yet intriguing. My biggest dislike is the utter lack of quotation marks, I found myself having to reread whole pages trying to understand who was saying what and on top of that the imagery is also quite intense at times.
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back because I finished this insane book. If you wanna not waste your time, please do not pick up this book. It's dizzyingly maddening.
This book was a page turner and an intriguing idea. However I felt this book should have been about 100 pages longer and included more back ground on John leal, what’s really true about what he told his cult and how he ended up where he was since were so short and so vague. I also would have liked to see phoebe’s point of view and her movement into the cult instead of just through Will’s eyes. This may have built up the cult a little more instead of just springing the domestic terrorism in at the end.
Damn this book really went there.
Pretty much every character is flawed and unreliable, and they are direct allegories to the complexity of each individual. The reason I took off a star was because sometimes the writing style and general structure of the storytelling took unnecessary pains to say what was being said. Overall, a wild ride. I was hooked until the end and read most of it in one sitting. It was crazy how real everything seemed. I could so easily see everything happening, that the outlandish nature of the cult activity and themes became shocking even though I knew it was coming. Major props to the author for not holding anything back, I just wish there would have been a little more editing.
Pretty much every character is flawed and unreliable, and they are direct allegories to the complexity of each individual. The reason I took off a star was because sometimes the writing style and general structure of the storytelling took unnecessary pains to say what was being said. Overall, a wild ride. I was hooked until the end and read most of it in one sitting. It was crazy how real everything seemed. I could so easily see everything happening, that the outlandish nature of the cult activity and themes became shocking even though I knew it was coming. Major props to the author for not holding anything back, I just wish there would have been a little more editing.