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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good writing, and many passages I loved. The second book was still an interesting story to follow, but I started to get tired of the amount of flashing back. I wanted more forward movement in the story, especially since I already knew from book #1 what was going to happen.
I found Ren to be over-the-top annoying about her undying love for Jimmy. I wish we'd been given more to her personality than that. I never felt like I knew her.
My biggest complaint is that there is NO WAY that, with so few people surviving, such an enormous percentage of them would have been Gardeners and/or know each other. That makes zero sense unless it's later revealed that Crake smuggled them a vaccine via honey or something. If not, I'm calling bogus. I can suspend my disbelief a long way, but that is too much for me. I actually was too irritated by the reunion at the end to feel any happiness that they'd survived and found each other.
I enjoyed the first book so much. I'm afraid to read the third book. It could possibly tie everything together beautifully and improve my opinion of the second book, but I'm afraid it's more likely to make me wish I'd just stuck with the first book alone.
I found Ren to be over-the-top annoying about her undying love for Jimmy. I wish we'd been given more to her personality than that. I never felt like I knew her.
My biggest complaint is that there is NO WAY that, with so few people surviving, such an enormous percentage of them would have been Gardeners and/or know each other. That makes zero sense unless it's later revealed that Crake smuggled them a vaccine via honey or something. If not, I'm calling bogus. I can suspend my disbelief a long way, but that is too much for me. I actually was too irritated by the reunion at the end to feel any happiness that they'd survived and found each other.
I enjoyed the first book so much. I'm afraid to read the third book. It could possibly tie everything together beautifully and improve my opinion of the second book, but I'm afraid it's more likely to make me wish I'd just stuck with the first book alone.
Review transcribed from my reading journal (2021): This book shows a very different perspective to the series than Oryx and Crake did. It was refreshing to get a perspective of Jimmy that wasn't his inner thoughts and I liked him a bit better in this book even though I was previously privy to all his inner thoughts.
Elaboration from current me: You are not supposed to like Jimmy in O&C and I would actually encourage people to read The Year of The Flood first before O&C because I think it would be an interesting experience to get the prettier version of the world and of Jimmy before becoming aware of the absolute garbage that is in his brain and his grotesque point of view of the world.
Elaboration from current me: You are not supposed to like Jimmy in O&C and I would actually encourage people to read The Year of The Flood first before O&C because I think it would be an interesting experience to get the prettier version of the world and of Jimmy before becoming aware of the absolute garbage that is in his brain and his grotesque point of view of the world.
Some of the magic of any trilogy wears of after the first book, of course, since you don't get to experience the thrill of world-building again. That said, I'm totally reading MaddAddam so I can get to the end of this saga Atwood has created! This book was still engrossing but I do feel like every character is alone somehow even when they are together - there's some disconnect between the way they interact and my lived experience of connecting with other people but it may be intentional since the world Atwood is writing from is totally f'ed up!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was quite an interesting direction for a “sequel,” but… who am I to judge? A bit slow, but with an interesting character and ideas centered around religion and community. Not quite as good as the original, but still worth it if you liked the first one.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No