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challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not for the faint of heart. Like 5 movies in one book. Absolute rollercoaster. The main character has lived many lives and you feel every one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, War
adventurous
dark
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:
Complicated
This book was 800 pages of struggle. It’s narrated by a character so profoundly irritating I wondered at first if it was being done on purpose as a way for the author to indicate we should not like this character but realised by page 400 it was just how the book is written.
The narrators internal monologue is so smug I ended up rooting for the terrorist he’s hunting.
The writer employs an irritating device at least 5 times where he gets the main character to foreshadow something, saying something like ‘and that made what I went on to do even worse’ or ‘if only I knew what a mistake that was’ but then takes so long to reveal what that foreshadowing is hinting at that you’ve forgotten he foreshadowed it at all. Which means encountering this device is a bit redundant for the reader because you have no idea what he’s on about and by the time you find out you’ve forgotten it was something you were meant to be excited to have revealed.
The book also spends huge amounts of pages on side quests. The essential plot of this book could have been handled in 300 odd pages, the other 500 are spent by the main character monologue-ing about his childhood, or cool secret missions he went on as a young man, or his relationship with his parents, or his thoughts on the 9/11 memorial. Perhaps if the character was more likeable I wouldn’t have minded so much but I felt a bit like I was being held hostage by a boring man at a bar who won’t stop talking at me.
The narrators internal monologue is so smug I ended up rooting for the terrorist he’s hunting.
The writer employs an irritating device at least 5 times where he gets the main character to foreshadow something, saying something like ‘and that made what I went on to do even worse’ or ‘if only I knew what a mistake that was’ but then takes so long to reveal what that foreshadowing is hinting at that you’ve forgotten he foreshadowed it at all. Which means encountering this device is a bit redundant for the reader because you have no idea what he’s on about and by the time you find out you’ve forgotten it was something you were meant to be excited to have revealed.
The book also spends huge amounts of pages on side quests. The essential plot of this book could have been handled in 300 odd pages, the other 500 are spent by the main character monologue-ing about his childhood, or cool secret missions he went on as a young man, or his relationship with his parents, or his thoughts on the 9/11 memorial. Perhaps if the character was more likeable I wouldn’t have minded so much but I felt a bit like I was being held hostage by a boring man at a bar who won’t stop talking at me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, War
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicide, Religious bigotry, Stalking
Minor: Sexism, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, War
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-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
I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. But you can tell this book was written by an old white man.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, Murder, War, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Confinement, Homophobia, Misogyny, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Enthralling novel following a top secret agent as he works to stop what is possibly the end of the world. Mystery after mystery unravels and we watch him piece it all together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Long and bloated storyline. Problematic depictions of nationalities that are not American. Pretty much all female characters or mentions of women are negative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Murder, War
dark
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:
N/A
"I Am Pilgrim" should pick another name, because for a 600+ page thriller there's little progress and a lot of self-indulgent wankery.
First off, if you're writing a thriller there should be tension. That's a hard thing to maintain in 300 pages, much less 600. But don't worry, Hayes immediately pumps the breaks on any forward momentum after the opening murder scene to give you the insight of his Gary Stu cypher. Pilgrim a.k.a. Scotty, a.k.a. Hey Jude, and a lot of other names...says he's not a vain guy, but can't stop using superlatives for everything he comes across. The most courageous souls, the most gruesome crime scenes, the vilest criminals, and, of course, he is the writer of the most amazing special book on criminal forensics that had ever been put to paper. But only after a stint as the world's greatest secret agent, where even the President of the United States has to tell the director of intelligence he's the bravest son of a bitch he's ever met.
So maybe Hayes's writing is a little hyperbolic, but surely he can demonstrate an above average competent secret agent, right? Well, the first example of Pilgrim's criminal deduction prowess comes when he deduces the suspect at a crime scene must have been a woman. Was it from discovering trace evidence of feminine products? Some footprint remains that would hint to a female weight distribution? Ha, no! It's because the silly woman put milk in the fridge and left beer out on the table. A man would never do such a thing!
So not only is Pilgrim a misogynist, he's also a grossly reductive idiot because of it. Or somehow he has only met men who happen to be inept college freshmen alcoholics. But this isn't just a POV limited flaw. Hayes makes sure that he's super amazing, no really, in ways that are so cringingly heavy handed you might feel second hand embarrassment for it. One particular example is when Pilgrim shows up at a forensic conference as the "friend" of the posthumous author, Jude Garrett, except he was the true person who wrote it. When giving advice about the forensic process, no details of course, a woman in the audience has to stop and ask if Jude Garrett was just so devestatingly sexually attractive as his academic writing made it sound. It was so awkward and ill concieved a plot point I was waiting for the next sentence to be, "And then everybody stood up and clapped."
So maybe Pilgrim as a character is bad, and maybe there are some cringey asides, but what about the plot of the book? Plenty of other people have commented on the Islamaphobia of the story. And the way Hayes writes Pilgrim as only having empathy for Holocaust victims and those of 9/11. He loves it so much he manages to shoehorn a Nazi backstory into the book despite it not really being relevant. This also includes Pilgrim's apparent ability to consume massive amounts of drugs but never suffer ill effects and also it never matters as a flaw or plot point. I will say the book only manages to become slightly readable when you're dealing with the brutal, methodical cruelty of the Saracen, if only because the villain produces a forward motion to the plot each time the POV switches from Pilgrim's internal monologue to a more limited 3rd describing what horrible crimes this man does in the name of Jihad. Once you get back into Pilgrim's head it's more humblebragging and unearned coincidences being passed off as intellectual rigor. Like the initial murder in New York being tied to an investigation into the Saracen's accomplice in Turkey is 100% pure luck but, sure, give him credit for both.
At the end of the day I wouldn't have liked the book for its jingoistic narrator or the many unfortunate character choices made along the way. But my main qualm is that it's unbearably stupid and trying to say it's smart. Telling us this forensic expert could create perfect murders by things like using acid to burn the facial features and fingerprints is not new information. Evidence via dental records has been around since 1692. Planting evidence for "accidental" deaths like leaving a scrap of clothing on a railing is also not novel or clever. Pilgrim being a super spy who constantly forgets his legend and makes stupid assumptions is not tension building, it's just plain annoying like watching someone in a horror novel walk into a dimly lit basement when a serial killer is afoot. Is there danger? Yes. Do I care when the character is frequently walking into it like an idiot? No. I felt like I was reading an Inspector Gadget gritty reboot done completely straight.
First off, if you're writing a thriller there should be tension. That's a hard thing to maintain in 300 pages, much less 600. But don't worry, Hayes immediately pumps the breaks on any forward momentum after the opening murder scene to give you the insight of his Gary Stu cypher. Pilgrim a.k.a. Scotty, a.k.a. Hey Jude, and a lot of other names...says he's not a vain guy, but can't stop using superlatives for everything he comes across. The most courageous souls, the most gruesome crime scenes, the vilest criminals, and, of course, he is the writer of the most amazing special book on criminal forensics that had ever been put to paper. But only after a stint as the world's greatest secret agent, where even the President of the United States has to tell the director of intelligence he's the bravest son of a bitch he's ever met.
So maybe Hayes's writing is a little hyperbolic, but surely he can demonstrate an above average competent secret agent, right? Well, the first example of Pilgrim's criminal deduction prowess comes when he deduces the suspect at a crime scene must have been a woman. Was it from discovering trace evidence of feminine products? Some footprint remains that would hint to a female weight distribution? Ha, no! It's because the silly woman put milk in the fridge and left beer out on the table. A man would never do such a thing!
So not only is Pilgrim a misogynist, he's also a grossly reductive idiot because of it. Or somehow he has only met men who happen to be inept college freshmen alcoholics. But this isn't just a POV limited flaw. Hayes makes sure that he's super amazing, no really, in ways that are so cringingly heavy handed you might feel second hand embarrassment for it. One particular example is when Pilgrim shows up at a forensic conference as the "friend" of the posthumous author, Jude Garrett, except he was the true person who wrote it. When giving advice about the forensic process, no details of course, a woman in the audience has to stop and ask if Jude Garrett was just so devestatingly sexually attractive as his academic writing made it sound. It was so awkward and ill concieved a plot point I was waiting for the next sentence to be, "And then everybody stood up and clapped."
So maybe Pilgrim as a character is bad, and maybe there are some cringey asides, but what about the plot of the book? Plenty of other people have commented on the Islamaphobia of the story. And the way Hayes writes Pilgrim as only having empathy for Holocaust victims and those of 9/11. He loves it so much he manages to shoehorn a Nazi backstory into the book despite it not really being relevant. This also includes Pilgrim's apparent ability to consume massive amounts of drugs but never suffer ill effects and also it never matters as a flaw or plot point. I will say the book only manages to become slightly readable when you're dealing with the brutal, methodical cruelty of the Saracen, if only because the villain produces a forward motion to the plot each time the POV switches from Pilgrim's internal monologue to a more limited 3rd describing what horrible crimes this man does in the name of Jihad. Once you get back into Pilgrim's head it's more humblebragging and unearned coincidences being passed off as intellectual rigor. Like the initial murder in New York being tied to an investigation into the Saracen's accomplice in Turkey is 100% pure luck but, sure, give him credit for both.
At the end of the day I wouldn't have liked the book for its jingoistic narrator or the many unfortunate character choices made along the way. But my main qualm is that it's unbearably stupid and trying to say it's smart. Telling us this forensic expert could create perfect murders by things like using acid to burn the facial features and fingerprints is not new information. Evidence via dental records has been around since 1692. Planting evidence for "accidental" deaths like leaving a scrap of clothing on a railing is also not novel or clever. Pilgrim being a super spy who constantly forgets his legend and makes stupid assumptions is not tension building, it's just plain annoying like watching someone in a horror novel walk into a dimly lit basement when a serial killer is afoot. Is there danger? Yes. Do I care when the character is frequently walking into it like an idiot? No. I felt like I was reading an Inspector Gadget gritty reboot done completely straight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, War
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault
Minor: Addiction, Toxic relationship