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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The .5 is simply for the sense of dread that's built up while reading but otherwise I'm baffled at how this warranted a movie? Like....what? Everyone was truly unlovable. Sure yeah the idea of not knowing is terrifying but it took FOREVER to get any sort of curiosity built.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I saw the movie before I even knew that this was a book and I feel like that is swaying my opinion on the book itself. I like that a lot of what is going on is left up to interpretation and I think that the book is a great study on human interaction during times of duress, but I do feel like there is a party of my brain that is craving a blunt explanation of what is going on here.
What a book! Scary, feels real, and the ending was perfect.
I was really indifferent towards this book, its characters, the plot up until we start seeing real consequences at the end. I'm never much of a fan of talking about a thing rather than seeing the thing (unless it's literally a monster but you the reader know it's a monster and just don't ever see it, because if you look too closely at a monster it loses its appeal). So to have the whole plot basically be a bunch of people trapped in a small space panicking even though they don't really know what they're panicking about... It bored me.
The writing was solid and the characters really felt dimensional and alive on the page. You can tell as a reader that Alam is a skilled writer. The problem was, as with most really divisive but objectively well-written books, I personally didn't care for it.
{Thank you Harper Audio and Librofm for the ALC; all thoughts are my own}
The writing was solid and the characters really felt dimensional and alive on the page. You can tell as a reader that Alam is a skilled writer. The problem was, as with most really divisive but objectively well-written books, I personally didn't care for it.
{Thank you Harper Audio and Librofm for the ALC; all thoughts are my own}
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
so incredible. the mix of commentary on race, class, and technology. a book written pre pandemic that feels eerily close to what we experienced march 2020. definitely tenser than the movie but so so so good.
Still processing my full takeaway, but giving this four stars on the basis of beautiful writing and an effectively unsettling narrative. Clay's acknowledgment of feeling adrift without a cell phone - that would be a lot of us, I suspect!
Enjoying listening to the related Nerdette podcast episodes.
Enjoying listening to the related Nerdette podcast episodes.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes