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shalini_gunnasan's review
4.0
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.
This was, frankly, an entertaining read. The Bermuda Triangle mystery is always a rich source for stories, and I have to say I have never encountered this particular explanation before (I love it!).
The novel, read as a whole, has a very clipped, visual feel to it - at times it feels like the script to a graphic novel. The action is continuous and something is always happening. As this story is meant to be read in serial form, meaning there might be breaks between chapters, the style is very suitable.
The main characters, while each has a unique voice, aren't too complicated in their motivations and personality. We know exactly how this person will react to a situation or what they will say or what they will eventually do or think.
The plot has a natural-feeling progression and the mystery eventual resolution was well done. The only con was that ending was far too rushed, and the sudden entry of the sole villainous element was just too jarring and out of place. It didn't feel organic with the rest of the story, taking the graphic novel element too far and bordering on cartoonish. The ending is my only quibble with this novel which had been otherwise satisfactory.
I rate this 4/5 as it kept me well entertained.
This was, frankly, an entertaining read. The Bermuda Triangle mystery is always a rich source for stories, and I have to say I have never encountered this particular explanation before (I love it!).
The novel, read as a whole, has a very clipped, visual feel to it - at times it feels like the script to a graphic novel. The action is continuous and something is always happening. As this story is meant to be read in serial form, meaning there might be breaks between chapters, the style is very suitable.
The main characters, while each has a unique voice, aren't too complicated in their motivations and personality. We know exactly how this person will react to a situation or what they will say or what they will eventually do or think.
The plot has a natural-feeling progression and the mystery eventual resolution was well done. The only con was that ending was far too rushed, and the sudden entry of the sole villainous element was just too jarring and out of place. It didn't feel organic with the rest of the story, taking the graphic novel element too far and bordering on cartoonish. The ending is my only quibble with this novel which had been otherwise satisfactory.
I rate this 4/5 as it kept me well entertained.
jnkay01's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Diverting enough to make a commute more bearable. It mostly made me want to rewatch "Lost." Fun use of "The Hunt for Red October" as a plot device.
It did bother me that Antigua appeared to be somewhat randomly selected as an island representative of the inhabited Caribbean, for comparison with the deserted island. Maybe I missed a crucial detail about the location of the mystery island, but Antigua seemed far off course for the plot. Maybe it's just a fun island to name in a story? The islands of the Caribbean aren't interchangeable!
It did bother me that Antigua appeared to be somewhat randomly selected as an island representative of the inhabited Caribbean, for comparison with the deserted island. Maybe I missed a crucial detail about the location of the mystery island, but Antigua seemed far off course for the plot. Maybe it's just a fun island to name in a story? The islands of the Caribbean aren't interchangeable!
etoiline's review
3.0
Sorta speedy mystery-thriller about, you guessed it, the Bermuda Triangle. Ties things up neatly with room for a sequel. Maybe a little bit of sci-fi mixed in, and a very good use of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.
verkisto's review
1.0
Serial Box gifted me a copy of the series. They didn't ask for a review in return, but here it is.
This is a story about the Bermuda Triangle. Had I known that to begin with, I might have passed on Serial Box's offer. Those kinds of stories usually come across as hokey and stupid, but hey, free fiction, and I thought this was going to be just a three-part story, not ten parts.
The Triangle has about as much subtlety and nuance as the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. It just wants to get things started enough to get the story started, and then rolls on through everything else without any grace. It's full of cliches, both in character and scene, and at one point a little girl holds "a stuffed rabbit by the ear, his bottom legs dragging in the dirt, one eye loose in the socket, held in place by a single string".
The authors seem to be trying for a serious tone to the series while also having an irreverence to the narrative. And the banter. Oh good Lord, the banter. It gets tiresome after a while. To their credit, they maintain a continuity of style, so it's not jarring to move from one author's section to the next.
The story is easy to read, and it's relatively short, but that's not enough to make me recommend it to other readers. It's not as bad as some of the Abyss books I've read, but that's only because it doesn't have the kind of rampant sexism and misogyny I've seen there.
tl;dr: I was already put off that it was a Bermuda Triangle story, but beyond that, it's just kinda stupid.
This is a story about the Bermuda Triangle. Had I known that to begin with, I might have passed on Serial Box's offer. Those kinds of stories usually come across as hokey and stupid, but hey, free fiction, and I thought this was going to be just a three-part story, not ten parts.
The Triangle has about as much subtlety and nuance as the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. It just wants to get things started enough to get the story started, and then rolls on through everything else without any grace. It's full of cliches, both in character and scene, and at one point a little girl holds "a stuffed rabbit by the ear, his bottom legs dragging in the dirt, one eye loose in the socket, held in place by a single string".
The authors seem to be trying for a serious tone to the series while also having an irreverence to the narrative. And the banter. Oh good Lord, the banter. It gets tiresome after a while. To their credit, they maintain a continuity of style, so it's not jarring to move from one author's section to the next.
The story is easy to read, and it's relatively short, but that's not enough to make me recommend it to other readers. It's not as bad as some of the Abyss books I've read, but that's only because it doesn't have the kind of rampant sexism and misogyny I've seen there.
tl;dr: I was already put off that it was a Bermuda Triangle story, but beyond that, it's just kinda stupid.
beckylej's review
4.0
A storm is brewing and that means a host of evacuees making their way up the coast from Florida to safer areas. Grace Phillips offers her farm to a few close friends and their various animals, which is fortunate because they have the space and the means to put up a number of people, dogs, and, thankfully, horses. But throughout the week, the stress and tension of close quarters and worries over the storm play havoc on the farm and its residents. As the storm tears through its path, they all find that while they may be physically safe, the hurricane will tear through them emotionally. By the end, friends and lovers will find the closest of relationships stressed to the max. Whether they'll come out of it intact is the real question.
Talk about a book I can empathize with. Growing up in southwest Louisiana, I was no stranger to hurricanes, storm preparations, and evacuations. My final years of college were the worst with storm after storm threatening the area and dissipating before hitting, causing all of the local businesses and the schools to wan in their response levels with each new storm.
So yeah, I can understand stress centered around leaving your home, wondering if your home will make it, worrying about animals, and even the friction it all causes among groups of people sheltered together.
Of course in The Summer Guests, the farm these folks have evacuated to is HUGE! There's the main house, the barn, and two "cottages," which are anything but the small abodes I imagined they would be. So there's plenty of space for these folks to all spread out and ignore one another. But they don't. In part because of Grace and their relationships with her.
While the various guests all vaguely know one another, some simply due to being part of the horse world, the one person they all know is Grace. And she'd like nothing more than for all her close friends to get along with one another. But tension and stress definitely don't bring out the best in people. You can imagine the strength of the emotional storm brewing is as strong by the time it figuratively hits as the hurricane they're all bracing for!
One thing I'm not familiar with is horses. I rode, more regularly than most, but it was limited to summer camps and trips to dude ranches. Dressage and jumping, maintenance, sales, etc are all foreign to me. But they are a central portion of The Summer Guests. This was an interesting aspect of the book and one that's threaded throughout, giving the reader a sense of familiarity from the start even if you know literally nothing about horses at all.
The Summer Guests is the kind of read you can sink into and the characters are the kind you can call friends by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even more so now that I no longer live along the coast and have to worry about storms that are already earning names this calendar year!
Talk about a book I can empathize with. Growing up in southwest Louisiana, I was no stranger to hurricanes, storm preparations, and evacuations. My final years of college were the worst with storm after storm threatening the area and dissipating before hitting, causing all of the local businesses and the schools to wan in their response levels with each new storm.
So yeah, I can understand stress centered around leaving your home, wondering if your home will make it, worrying about animals, and even the friction it all causes among groups of people sheltered together.
Of course in The Summer Guests, the farm these folks have evacuated to is HUGE! There's the main house, the barn, and two "cottages," which are anything but the small abodes I imagined they would be. So there's plenty of space for these folks to all spread out and ignore one another. But they don't. In part because of Grace and their relationships with her.
While the various guests all vaguely know one another, some simply due to being part of the horse world, the one person they all know is Grace. And she'd like nothing more than for all her close friends to get along with one another. But tension and stress definitely don't bring out the best in people. You can imagine the strength of the emotional storm brewing is as strong by the time it figuratively hits as the hurricane they're all bracing for!
One thing I'm not familiar with is horses. I rode, more regularly than most, but it was limited to summer camps and trips to dude ranches. Dressage and jumping, maintenance, sales, etc are all foreign to me. But they are a central portion of The Summer Guests. This was an interesting aspect of the book and one that's threaded throughout, giving the reader a sense of familiarity from the start even if you know literally nothing about horses at all.
The Summer Guests is the kind of read you can sink into and the characters are the kind you can call friends by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even more so now that I no longer live along the coast and have to worry about storms that are already earning names this calendar year!
sunsoar25's review
4.0
I received a free ecopy from Serial Box Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
I've always been intrigued by the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, but I've hardly ever read any novels on the topic. The Triangle from Serial Box by Dan Koboldt, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, and Mindy McGinnis was exactly the YA sci-fi mystery I needed on the subject. The project is cowritten by three authors and each one smoothly trades off on chapters. Of the three authors I'm only familiar with McGinnis. In fact, she's one of my favorites and as for the others I think I'll have to check out more of their work now. The story is quite fast-paced, filled with plenty of twists and turns, and it's visually cinematic. I only wish the ending didn't seem quite as hurried. Overall, though, The Triangle is well worth your time, especially if you're into the Bermuda Triangle and enjoy tight mysteries.
I've always been intrigued by the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, but I've hardly ever read any novels on the topic. The Triangle from Serial Box by Dan Koboldt, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, and Mindy McGinnis was exactly the YA sci-fi mystery I needed on the subject. The project is cowritten by three authors and each one smoothly trades off on chapters. Of the three authors I'm only familiar with McGinnis. In fact, she's one of my favorites and as for the others I think I'll have to check out more of their work now. The story is quite fast-paced, filled with plenty of twists and turns, and it's visually cinematic. I only wish the ending didn't seem quite as hurried. Overall, though, The Triangle is well worth your time, especially if you're into the Bermuda Triangle and enjoy tight mysteries.
marziesreads's review
3.0
2.5 to 3 Stars (It wasn't the right series for me, but it might be for you...)
The Triangle is a Serial Box production centering on disappearances in the famed Bermuda Triangle. After a series of storms, disappearances start occurring in the region but once an entire warship, USS Wasp, goes missing the US government puts together a covert task force to investigate what's going on. And that was part of my problem with the structure of this story- the idea of a covert team seemed implausible when you're talking about a response when an entire naval warship is missing, let alone all the airplanes that have been lost. Where is the Federal Aviation Administration? The Department of Defense Investigative Services? Coast Guard Investigative Services? Instead we get a single National Transportation Safety Board investigator, a retired Navy vice admiral, a data recovery specialist, a conspiracy theorist writer, and they are joined, for some reason, by a police inspector from Antigua. Yep, great team to solve the mystery of a missing warship that in real life would have cost well over a billion US dollars to build.
The writing style of this serial felt choppier than what I've seen with prior co-written Serial Box productions I've read and enjoyed (most recently The Vela but also Fisher of Bones, Bookburners, and The Witch Who Came in from the Cold.) Let me say, however, that I am still quite sold on Serial Box as a concept. Once again, for those new to the platform, the stories are released in episode format and you can both read and listen to the productions, which is wonderful for someone who has to switch back and forth between written and audio reading.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this series from Serial Box in exchange for an honest review.
The Triangle is a Serial Box production centering on disappearances in the famed Bermuda Triangle. After a series of storms, disappearances start occurring in the region but once an entire warship, USS Wasp, goes missing the US government puts together a covert task force to investigate what's going on. And that was part of my problem with the structure of this story- the idea of a covert team seemed implausible when you're talking about a response when an entire naval warship is missing, let alone all the airplanes that have been lost. Where is the Federal Aviation Administration? The Department of Defense Investigative Services? Coast Guard Investigative Services? Instead we get a single National Transportation Safety Board investigator, a retired Navy vice admiral, a data recovery specialist, a conspiracy theorist writer, and they are joined, for some reason, by a police inspector from Antigua. Yep, great team to solve the mystery of a missing warship that in real life would have cost well over a billion US dollars to build.
The writing style of this serial felt choppier than what I've seen with prior co-written Serial Box productions I've read and enjoyed (most recently The Vela but also Fisher of Bones, Bookburners, and The Witch Who Came in from the Cold.) Let me say, however, that I am still quite sold on Serial Box as a concept. Once again, for those new to the platform, the stories are released in episode format and you can both read and listen to the productions, which is wonderful for someone who has to switch back and forth between written and audio reading.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this series from Serial Box in exchange for an honest review.
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