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bookishmadness's review
4.0
This science-fiction novel wasn't what I expected, and I am glad of that. This book was so well-written that once I got into it, I didn't want to put it down. Plus there is a killer twist in the end and I always love that in a story!
The main character is Danny Boy, the new "poke". The story switches between his point of view, and another boy named Reed. I found the story quite hard to follow at the start, the news articles were slightly off-putting, but eventually it all starts to make sense. If you tend to pick up on things quickly, then the reason for this island, and for Foreverland may become apparent to you quite easily, where-as for me, I didn't fully get it until the end, which made it even more exciting, waiting until the last minute to know.
I think this book would suit people of any age, and any genre - it really made me wonder if this is the kind of future we may end up looking at. Scary thought!
The main character is Danny Boy, the new "poke". The story switches between his point of view, and another boy named Reed. I found the story quite hard to follow at the start, the news articles were slightly off-putting, but eventually it all starts to make sense. If you tend to pick up on things quickly, then the reason for this island, and for Foreverland may become apparent to you quite easily, where-as for me, I didn't fully get it until the end, which made it even more exciting, waiting until the last minute to know.
I think this book would suit people of any age, and any genre - it really made me wonder if this is the kind of future we may end up looking at. Scary thought!
jadeeby's review
4.0
Originally published at my blog Chasing Empty Pavements
EDITED ** I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new cover!!! WTG Mr. BERTAUSKI!
I'm going to be completely honest here and tell you I was not expecting much from this book. In fact, lately I dread starting self-published or author requested books because well... they just haven't been that great lately. But oh was I wrong about this one! Holy moly, I literally read this book in two sittings. It was unlike anything I've ever read and I'd say the best way to describe it was a mash up between Inception and Shutter Island.
The Good: This book had me hooked by the third page. It starts with a bang and doesn't waste any time getting exciting! The plot is completely fascinating, these boys wake up with a hole in the middle of their forehead and then they're told to go and play video games and do whatever they want to do but then they are forced in this room naked to endure torture before putting on a creepy device. The world building was incredible and the whole alternate reality thing was mind boggling. I loved the 3 main characters, Danny Boy, Zin and Reed. I felt like they were all heroes for different reasons and they really upheld the story. One thing I really liked was the interjection of newspaper clippings in the story. They were short but wonderful insights into the characters. The writing was well done, the pacing was fantastic and I kept on the edge of my seat the entire time! The twist at the end was awesome as well. Totally wasn't expecting it.
The Bad: Okay two major things bugged me about this novel and they were the reason I went back and forth on giving it 3 or 4 stars on Goodreads. First off, the characters all use the word "son." Like, "Don't do that, son." "Respect your elders, son." But ALL of the characters use it, not just the adults, the kids do too. And it's SOO ANNOYING!!!!!! It wouldn't have bugged me if it was in there a few times, but I'm tempted to go back through and count how many times the characters use it. I bet at LEAST a 100. It really really bugged me. Secondly, there's a part in the novel where we get a little bit of backstory on Danny Boy but it was SO unrealistic that it made the rest of the made up world seem realistic if that makes sense. Like the backstory the author put in place for this character seems totally fake, not plausible at all and thrown together.
Other than the two things mentioned, I really enjoyed this book and was so very impressed that it was a self-published book! I give it a B-!!!
**I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions are my own and I was not obligated to write a favorable review.
EDITED ** I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new cover!!! WTG Mr. BERTAUSKI!
I'm going to be completely honest here and tell you I was not expecting much from this book. In fact, lately I dread starting self-published or author requested books because well... they just haven't been that great lately. But oh was I wrong about this one! Holy moly, I literally read this book in two sittings. It was unlike anything I've ever read and I'd say the best way to describe it was a mash up between Inception and Shutter Island.
The Good: This book had me hooked by the third page. It starts with a bang and doesn't waste any time getting exciting! The plot is completely fascinating, these boys wake up with a hole in the middle of their forehead and then they're told to go and play video games and do whatever they want to do but then they are forced in this room naked to endure torture before putting on a creepy device. The world building was incredible and the whole alternate reality thing was mind boggling. I loved the 3 main characters, Danny Boy, Zin and Reed. I felt like they were all heroes for different reasons and they really upheld the story. One thing I really liked was the interjection of newspaper clippings in the story. They were short but wonderful insights into the characters. The writing was well done, the pacing was fantastic and I kept on the edge of my seat the entire time! The twist at the end was awesome as well. Totally wasn't expecting it.
The Bad: Okay two major things bugged me about this novel and they were the reason I went back and forth on giving it 3 or 4 stars on Goodreads. First off, the characters all use the word "son." Like, "Don't do that, son." "Respect your elders, son." But ALL of the characters use it, not just the adults, the kids do too. And it's SOO ANNOYING!!!!!! It wouldn't have bugged me if it was in there a few times, but I'm tempted to go back through and count how many times the characters use it. I bet at LEAST a 100. It really really bugged me. Secondly, there's a part in the novel where we get a little bit of backstory on Danny Boy but it was SO unrealistic that it made the rest of the made up world seem realistic if that makes sense. Like the backstory the author put in place for this character seems totally fake, not plausible at all and thrown together.
Other than the two things mentioned, I really enjoyed this book and was so very impressed that it was a self-published book! I give it a B-!!!
**I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions are my own and I was not obligated to write a favorable review.
tl_mann's review
5.0
This was a nice surprise! not my normal type of book. Although I figured things out quickly, it kept me sacked into the story.
sk24's review
3.0
This review and more: Sharing Inspired Kreations
This book was just okay in my opinion. It kept my interest enough to see it through, but didn’t excite me enough to read the sequel.
The concept and storyline of this book are great and it had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I was left dissatisfied overall. I wasn’t quite bored with the book, but I didn’t overly enjoy my time reading it either. It was very easy to find other things to do rather than read this book, so that’s a red flag for me. I love to read! When I’m reading a good book, there’s nothing that can stop me (other than my daughter – haha).
The characters were just okay and the writing was a bit weak (with typos/errors throughout. Sigh.).
This book was just okay in my opinion. It kept my interest enough to see it through, but didn’t excite me enough to read the sequel.
The concept and storyline of this book are great and it had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I was left dissatisfied overall. I wasn’t quite bored with the book, but I didn’t overly enjoy my time reading it either. It was very easy to find other things to do rather than read this book, so that’s a red flag for me. I love to read! When I’m reading a good book, there’s nothing that can stop me (other than my daughter – haha).
The characters were just okay and the writing was a bit weak (with typos/errors throughout. Sigh.).
bookishbyso's review
3.0
After receiving the box set What Tomorrow May Bring, I was overwhelmed by the number of enticing plots and didn't know where to start. When I read up on this one however, I new I had to find out more. The blurb was enough to intrigue me, as well as the fact that (I assume) it was loosely related to Peter Pan and Neverland. This book took me longer to read than anticipated, not for lack of plot but rather because it was amazing in some parts but not so much in others. There were a number of brilliant of factors that made this story gripping, but at the same time I had some issues that made me hesitant and- truth be told- less inclined to finish.
Let me start with the plot line. Oh my goodness, this book was creepy as hell. It literally made my skin crawl in parts, what with it's insane story line and nutty grandpa characters. I think I may have developed a slight fear of old men thanks to this book! But the plot was truly unique in my opinion. I loved the idea of the remote island with children who appeared to be the luckiest in the world with their free reign to do as they pleased, but all the while had you questioning what was really going on. The setting was admittedly not the best developed and a little generic but I feel like the actual plot made up for that. I enjoyed following the main character as he made his discoveries and slowly uncovered the truth about Foreverland.
This brings me on to my next point; the characters. Danny Boy was pretty controversial in my mind. I felt like the author couldn't decide on how old he was, even though we're told he's 13. At times he acts his age, and does what can only be expected from a new teenager, what with his love of gaming and what not. At the same time, I found it difficult to wrap my mind around how at 6 years old he was hacking into computer systems and doing things even an adult would find challenging. At 6 years old that didn't make him a Prodigy, but more an alien or a robot! It was just a tad unrealistic is what I'm trying to say. I couldn't particularly connect with him because he felt just a little bit flat in my opinion, and would have benefited from a little more character development.
Zin was such a brilliant secondary character. I absolutely loved his attitude and his funny lines, and couldn't get enough of him. Where Danny was lacking that thing which made us remember he was just a kid and therefore empathize with him, Zin couldn't be viewed as anything but the brilliant kid he was. He was my favourite character I think.
I really enjoyed the way that the subplots we started with, such as Reed, the black sheep of the herd, the mysterious redhead and Danny all came together in the end to reveal the bigger picture.
One other thing that did throw me for a loop a little was the writing. I found myself occasionally getting stuck on a sentence because it seemed out of place or ill-phrased, particularly in the news reportings at the start of the rounds. The constant variation in complexity of language made it feel like the author couldn't decide whether this book fitted into the higher end of children's genre or YA.
Overall, this book didn't quite meet my expectations which were admittedly high due to the beautiful cover and promising blurb, but was still intriguing nonetheless. If the plot sounds like something you would enjoy, and you can ignore discrepancies in language, then I would recommend it to you because the plot was honestly brilliant.
*this book is part of the box set What Tomorrow May Bring which was kindly offered to me for review*
Let me start with the plot line. Oh my goodness, this book was creepy as hell. It literally made my skin crawl in parts, what with it's insane story line and nutty grandpa characters. I think I may have developed a slight fear of old men thanks to this book! But the plot was truly unique in my opinion. I loved the idea of the remote island with children who appeared to be the luckiest in the world with their free reign to do as they pleased, but all the while had you questioning what was really going on. The setting was admittedly not the best developed and a little generic but I feel like the actual plot made up for that. I enjoyed following the main character as he made his discoveries and slowly uncovered the truth about Foreverland.
This brings me on to my next point; the characters. Danny Boy was pretty controversial in my mind. I felt like the author couldn't decide on how old he was, even though we're told he's 13. At times he acts his age, and does what can only be expected from a new teenager, what with his love of gaming and what not. At the same time, I found it difficult to wrap my mind around how at 6 years old he was hacking into computer systems and doing things even an adult would find challenging. At 6 years old that didn't make him a Prodigy, but more an alien or a robot! It was just a tad unrealistic is what I'm trying to say. I couldn't particularly connect with him because he felt just a little bit flat in my opinion, and would have benefited from a little more character development.
Zin was such a brilliant secondary character. I absolutely loved his attitude and his funny lines, and couldn't get enough of him. Where Danny was lacking that thing which made us remember he was just a kid and therefore empathize with him, Zin couldn't be viewed as anything but the brilliant kid he was. He was my favourite character I think.
I really enjoyed the way that the subplots we started with, such as Reed, the black sheep of the herd, the mysterious redhead and Danny all came together in the end to reveal the bigger picture.
One other thing that did throw me for a loop a little was the writing. I found myself occasionally getting stuck on a sentence because it seemed out of place or ill-phrased, particularly in the news reportings at the start of the rounds. The constant variation in complexity of language made it feel like the author couldn't decide whether this book fitted into the higher end of children's genre or YA.
Overall, this book didn't quite meet my expectations which were admittedly high due to the beautiful cover and promising blurb, but was still intriguing nonetheless. If the plot sounds like something you would enjoy, and you can ignore discrepancies in language, then I would recommend it to you because the plot was honestly brilliant.
*this book is part of the box set What Tomorrow May Bring which was kindly offered to me for review*
disconightwing's review
4.0
I suppose a book review isn't technically the right place to get into a "books written by guys vs. books written by girls" discussion, but I'm going to do it anyway. Once in high school, my class was given two passages from a popular book series with multiple authors, one written by a male and one written by a female, and we were asked which one wrote which passage. There wasn't anything wrong with either of them, and based on the passages we were given, almost the whole class agreed that we'd want to read both novels. But the woman's passage was centered on descriptions of the clothes, the people, and the horses. The guy's passage didn't give us any description of the horses or the people, but I had a perfect image of the sword the hero carried.
It's just that our brains are wired differently, and that's fine. For the most part, I don't think that a serious reader of any sex would have a problem reading a book authored by a differnt sex. But with that in mind, I walked away from this novel thinking that it's definitely more of a "guy's story" than a girl's. I can't give you a very specific description of Danny Boy at all, other than that he has red hair and he's probably pale considering that he's called "Danny Boy" and it just sounds Irish, but I can tell you that he doesn't have as much pubic hair as the other boys, that he is uncomfortable with the size of his sex organs, that he's embarrassed by having to get naked, and that one of his friends told him not to let his testicles touch the concrete floor, but that it wasn't a problem anyway because it was so cold he didn't think they'd reach.
Maybe that's how young teen boys talk to each other. I wouldn't know, considering that I'm not one. But this kid is unquestionably jailbait and I feel like a creep.
Now that that's out of the way, I devoured this book. Seriously, it was very well thought out, and it kept me guessing. I wanted to finish this book as quickly as possible, even though there were typos and formatting errors and usually that kind of thing annoys me. I wanted to finish this book even though between the title and the description, you can kinda figure out what's going to happen. Even though I felt like a creep. Even though it was written with revolving points of view, which is hard to write and even harder to enjoy. I'm not saying these things didn't get on my nerves, but I am saying I enjoyed the story enough that it didn't stop me from plowing through.
I feel like I can't discuss much of the plot at all without spoiling something, so the very basic outline is that young boys wake up on a supposedly uninhabited island with very limited memories. They're cared for, fed, sent to classes, and kept happy and busy. They're also all criminals or some other form of miscreants, and each boy has an older man called an "Investor" who is responsible for the primary happiness or what have you of each boy. Unfortunately, all of the Investors are unquestionably creepy, which somewhat detracted from my enjoyment of the book. (I kind of kept holding my breath for rape to happen. It didn't, thankfully; I walked away feeling disgusting enough without having to witness the rape of an underage boy.) The Investors are supposedly trying to rehabilitate the criminal boys, though it's pretty obvious that's the furthest thing from their minds, since their rehabilitation involves stripping them naked and locking them in a freezing room for two days with needles in their brains.
There is one boy, Reed, who refuses to submit to the needle torture because he has dreams of a girl (the only girl in the entire novel) who tells him to resist. He doesn't have the first clue to whom he might be, as the boys have to "discover" their memories by submitting to the needle treatment that he's refusing, but he has the vague idea that the girl is real and that he loves her, or loved her at one point, and the feeling is strong enough to strengthen his resolve.
There is another boy, Danny, called "Danny Boy" through the novel, that arrives on the island in the beginning of the book and it's through him that we discover what's going on. Danny Boy is a bit smarter than the average bear, and he figures out from the first moment of waking up that something's not right. He doesn't resist the needle, though, and he meets the girl that Reed's dreaming about. Because of that, he and Reed become something like friends.
I've already said that I feel like the plot and storyline were very well done. Something that really irritates me while I'm reading is a copout, and I honestly didn't feel like there were any in this novel. When characters figured something out, it was mostly in a believable way. I say "mostly" because there is some suspension of disbelief here, but that happens when you read science fiction or books where the premise revolves around sticking a needle in your brain. Through your skull. So I mean, yeah, there are some things that happen that, when I look at them in a real-world context, make me want to laugh. But within the context of the world in the novel, they make sense.
There were some typos and some formatting errors. I remember at least one instance (near the end) where Danny Boy was learning something about Reed but kept reading "Danny" on the page anyway. Being an X-Men person, I have an automatic knee-jerk reaction when someone types "rouge" when they meant to type "rogue" and I saw that one too (though admittedly it had nothing to do with mutants). For the most part, I saw a lot of unnecessary line breaks (as in, the middle of a sentence) and they're really what threw me off and out of the story. The formatting issue is what really annoyed me the most and is honestly probably what's mostly keeping me from giving this a five-star review. And I feel just a little bit like I'm being unfair, because I don't know where to place the blame for that. The other reasons are the creepy feelings that I'm still trying to work past, and the revolving POV issue, which wasn't poorly done, it just makes it harder to identify with any character.
I can get really nitpicky with books, so if this I the worst I have to complain about, it's a good thing in my opinion. I checked Amazon, and this is 99 cents for kindle, and I would have paid that without batting an eyelash. GET ON THIS, KINDLE PEOPLE.
(I got this book for free from Shut Up & Read.)
It's just that our brains are wired differently, and that's fine. For the most part, I don't think that a serious reader of any sex would have a problem reading a book authored by a differnt sex. But with that in mind, I walked away from this novel thinking that it's definitely more of a "guy's story" than a girl's. I can't give you a very specific description of Danny Boy at all, other than that he has red hair and he's probably pale considering that he's called "Danny Boy" and it just sounds Irish, but I can tell you that he doesn't have as much pubic hair as the other boys, that he is uncomfortable with the size of his sex organs, that he's embarrassed by having to get naked, and that one of his friends told him not to let his testicles touch the concrete floor, but that it wasn't a problem anyway because it was so cold he didn't think they'd reach.
Maybe that's how young teen boys talk to each other. I wouldn't know, considering that I'm not one. But this kid is unquestionably jailbait and I feel like a creep.
Now that that's out of the way, I devoured this book. Seriously, it was very well thought out, and it kept me guessing. I wanted to finish this book as quickly as possible, even though there were typos and formatting errors and usually that kind of thing annoys me. I wanted to finish this book even though between the title and the description, you can kinda figure out what's going to happen. Even though I felt like a creep. Even though it was written with revolving points of view, which is hard to write and even harder to enjoy. I'm not saying these things didn't get on my nerves, but I am saying I enjoyed the story enough that it didn't stop me from plowing through.
I feel like I can't discuss much of the plot at all without spoiling something, so the very basic outline is that young boys wake up on a supposedly uninhabited island with very limited memories. They're cared for, fed, sent to classes, and kept happy and busy. They're also all criminals or some other form of miscreants, and each boy has an older man called an "Investor" who is responsible for the primary happiness or what have you of each boy. Unfortunately, all of the Investors are unquestionably creepy, which somewhat detracted from my enjoyment of the book. (I kind of kept holding my breath for rape to happen. It didn't, thankfully; I walked away feeling disgusting enough without having to witness the rape of an underage boy.) The Investors are supposedly trying to rehabilitate the criminal boys, though it's pretty obvious that's the furthest thing from their minds, since their rehabilitation involves stripping them naked and locking them in a freezing room for two days with needles in their brains.
There is one boy, Reed, who refuses to submit to the needle torture because he has dreams of a girl (the only girl in the entire novel) who tells him to resist. He doesn't have the first clue to whom he might be, as the boys have to "discover" their memories by submitting to the needle treatment that he's refusing, but he has the vague idea that the girl is real and that he loves her, or loved her at one point, and the feeling is strong enough to strengthen his resolve.
There is another boy, Danny, called "Danny Boy" through the novel, that arrives on the island in the beginning of the book and it's through him that we discover what's going on. Danny Boy is a bit smarter than the average bear, and he figures out from the first moment of waking up that something's not right. He doesn't resist the needle, though, and he meets the girl that Reed's dreaming about. Because of that, he and Reed become something like friends.
I've already said that I feel like the plot and storyline were very well done. Something that really irritates me while I'm reading is a copout, and I honestly didn't feel like there were any in this novel. When characters figured something out, it was mostly in a believable way. I say "mostly" because there is some suspension of disbelief here, but that happens when you read science fiction or books where the premise revolves around sticking a needle in your brain. Through your skull. So I mean, yeah, there are some things that happen that, when I look at them in a real-world context, make me want to laugh. But within the context of the world in the novel, they make sense.
There were some typos and some formatting errors. I remember at least one instance (near the end) where Danny Boy was learning something about Reed but kept reading "Danny" on the page anyway. Being an X-Men person, I have an automatic knee-jerk reaction when someone types "rouge" when they meant to type "rogue" and I saw that one too (though admittedly it had nothing to do with mutants). For the most part, I saw a lot of unnecessary line breaks (as in, the middle of a sentence) and they're really what threw me off and out of the story. The formatting issue is what really annoyed me the most and is honestly probably what's mostly keeping me from giving this a five-star review. And I feel just a little bit like I'm being unfair, because I don't know where to place the blame for that. The other reasons are the creepy feelings that I'm still trying to work past, and the revolving POV issue, which wasn't poorly done, it just makes it harder to identify with any character.
I can get really nitpicky with books, so if this I the worst I have to complain about, it's a good thing in my opinion. I checked Amazon, and this is 99 cents for kindle, and I would have paid that without batting an eyelash. GET ON THIS, KINDLE PEOPLE.
(I got this book for free from Shut Up & Read.)
aashkevr's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book!
I mean, it was different. It was different than the dozens of books that one might read, one after another, storylines and characters blending together. I will remember it distinctly long after more popular novels have drifted away.
I read a review that implied that the book was meant for young people, and boys in particular - but I don't think that's necessarily true. I can imagine my 15 year old brother reading this book and enjoying it, but I can't say that he would take the same things away from it as I would. Books are rarely "meant for" a particular age, I think. It has more to do with what various ages tend to get from interaction with the book.
The characters in this story are faced with some very important, very existentially interesting dilemmas. They ask questions about the nature of identity and about the supremacy of the mind. Of particular interest is the character who haunts the Nowhere, but partially for reasons I shouldn't divulge. Memory is also explored - are people more than their memories? And can a memory have life? If a dream feels like reality, is it? Even the concept of being lost in Foreverland is *really* interesting!
Honestly, I think I could write a pretty impressive philosophy paper on this one. But that makes it sound boring, which it wasn't. The book was an excellent read, and one that I didn't want to be away from for long. I thought about it when I wasn't reading. I tried to guess what would happen. At one point I got teary for one of the characters. It's compelling fiction, but also thought-provoking literature.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes cerebral fiction.
I mean, it was different. It was different than the dozens of books that one might read, one after another, storylines and characters blending together. I will remember it distinctly long after more popular novels have drifted away.
I read a review that implied that the book was meant for young people, and boys in particular - but I don't think that's necessarily true. I can imagine my 15 year old brother reading this book and enjoying it, but I can't say that he would take the same things away from it as I would. Books are rarely "meant for" a particular age, I think. It has more to do with what various ages tend to get from interaction with the book.
The characters in this story are faced with some very important, very existentially interesting dilemmas. They ask questions about the nature of identity and about the supremacy of the mind. Of particular interest is the character who haunts the Nowhere, but partially for reasons I shouldn't divulge. Memory is also explored - are people more than their memories? And can a memory have life? If a dream feels like reality, is it? Even the concept of being lost in Foreverland is *really* interesting!
Honestly, I think I could write a pretty impressive philosophy paper on this one. But that makes it sound boring, which it wasn't. The book was an excellent read, and one that I didn't want to be away from for long. I thought about it when I wasn't reading. I tried to guess what would happen. At one point I got teary for one of the characters. It's compelling fiction, but also thought-provoking literature.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes cerebral fiction.