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4.18k reviews for:

Birnam Wood

Eleanor Catton

3.91 AVERAGE

naerts's profile picture

naerts's review

4.5
adventurous dark funny informative mysterious tense 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: Complicated

 Slow burn but eventful finish - by the last few chapters it was truly a page-turner. Definitely didn’t see where any of it was going, wrong on pretty much every prediction, which I like. Would recommend, with a caution to be patient for the first half.
dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
magecosplay's profile picture

magecosplay's review

4.0
dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mvindc's review

4.0
challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I find the pace of this book a bit breathless at first, but quickly I was hooked and had to race to finish it. I loved the build of it. And I liked jumping from person to person fluidly with very little break, it added to the relentless quality of it. 
livres_de_bloss's profile picture

livres_de_bloss's review

DID NOT FINISH: 12%

 I’m finding this slow, too expository, and dull. This isn’t the climate dystopian I was expecting. 🤷‍♀️

I adored this book. Loved the setting, the dialogue, the beautiful writing. The ending seemed rushed and did not fit at all - hence 4.5 stars.
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hungrylibrarian's review

4.0
adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Eek I’m sorry, but it just didn’t engage me until the very end, which is far too late. Maybe it’s better on paper than audio? For me, it was tedious conversation and character development that didn’t materialize. I stayed with it because of book club,

I pulled up some suggested prompts for book club discussion, and clearly others got a lot more out of it. So maybe in the future I’ll give it a go with visual reading, but for now, I’m one of the outliers.
dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes