Reviews - Pym | The StoryGraph

197 reviews for:

It’s been a long time since I stopped reading a book because it was just that poorly put together, but 150 pages into this, it was clear that it wasn’t going to get any better, and I was just over it. I wanted this to be great: I love Poe, love satire, love meta fiction, love old adventure novels like Jules Verne, I was looking for fiction with a critical racial angle.

This was just a total mess. The tone of the humor was seriously off; not funny. The plot and exposition are just all over the place. In a matter of about a page it is decided that the main character is going to go on an expedition to Antarctica for reasons that no amount of suspension of disbelief could get me over. There’s a crew that’s meant to be a funny mix of personalities but we are given no orientation to them or their dynamics. We’re just suddenly on a boat in Antarctica with them trying to remember who is who and why we should care. Jokes that aren’t funny to begin with (gah the lawyers keep talking about intellectual property and naming rights for antarctica!!) get belabored to the point that I’m literally writing “ugh.” in the margins. I honestly can’t believe this was published.

senordustin's review against another edition

4.0

weird mash up of scifi and lovecraft and slave narrative - i loved a lot of this crazy one

marplatense's review against another edition

5.0

Me tomó totalmente por sorpresa el giro que [a:Mat Johnson|319345|Mat Johnson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1245099622p2/319345.jpg] le da a una de mis historias preferidas (siempre digo que considero [b:The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|766869|The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|Edgar Allan Poe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568871231l/766869._SY75_.jpg|44915222] mi primer novela de horror, aquella de donde nace este apego sin límites que tengo por el genero aunque más que una novela de horror, es una adventura horrorifica): me encanta que la historia sea la inversa total de la novela original (en la característica de los personajes, adelantandose varios años a [b:The Ballad of Black Tom|26883558|The Ballad of Black Tom|Victor LaValle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447086249l/26883558._SY75_.jpg|46932536] o [b:Lovecraft Country|25109947|Lovecraft Country|Matt Ruff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1426040983l/25109947._SY75_.jpg|44803674]) pero respete el formato de diario de aventura en el mar (sobre todo el final), me divertí mucho con sus momentos cómicos y el aire Pynchonesco general del argumento que me hizo disfrutar y leer con avidez.

jnelsontwo's review

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jobinsonlis's review against another edition

4.0

The middle drags a bit and most of the characters other than the main character were fairly thin (especially his love interest Angela) but this is one of the most unique books I've read this year and is pretty damn funny.