Reviews

Creeping Jenny by Jeff Noon

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nja820's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

A bizarre and (sometimes) interesting supernatural mystery. The protagonist is boring and I didn't care much about his motivations, but the setting was fascinating. Sadly the plot was not as engrossing, but overall a solid novel. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone, but I'm not mad for having read it.

pomeranian_poltergeist's review

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

This book won me over with the strength of the premise alone and yet managed to lose me somewhere before even the mid-way point. An interesting, weird setting, wasted on an unpleasant dimensionless character and a nonsense mystery. (My note: you can't have a satisfactory mystery unless you've established the rules of the world!! Otherwise there's no aha! moment because the readers aren't in on it!! A pile of square cardboard bits isn't a jigsaw puzzle!!)
I will not be reading the other books in the series.

gavinsteyn's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

printedonvellum's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

glimnore's review

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2.0

Sometimes I feel like Noon went WAAAAAY too hard with this novel. Sometimes the weird leaked out too hard. With the vivid descriptions, the juxtaposed plot, and the layers upon layers of symbolism and meaning; I feel like there was a story somewhere. I remember starting this novel and absolutely loving the strange quirkiness of the setting. But as time went by...things started getting increasingly hostile. The language was beautiful, haunting, and eclectic; the plot was a bit contrived and confusing; and the madness was real. I can honestly say this was my least favorite of the Nyquist Mysteries.

I need a break from Noon. A long break.

pbobrit's review

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5.0

I have really enjoyed the Nyquist series, but this is my favorite of the three so far. Set outside of the cities of the first two, in a bizarre English village has Nyquist searching for his father and uncovering a mystery in the process. On the way he encounters strange villagers, dark rituals and a multitude of saints. This book is strange (as you would expect, and hope for), a real page turner but also so much fun to revel in the detail. Part of me hopes Nyquist will return to this locale in future outings.