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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
This is definitely a "wow, what did I just read?' kind of book in the best possible way.
First and foremost, this book was a interesting look into a world I once called my own. I have a BFA in Theatre, and spent some of my four years acquiring that degree playing similar games and learning the techniques that Claire does in her classes. And that's pretty much where the similarity ends.
It's a wild ride as the reader try to suss out how much is Claire acting, if there's something really wrong with her, really wrong with Patrick, and what's really happening the shadowy underworld of the online community at Necropolis.
I enjoyed the occasional piece of misdirection laid out in the form of Claire writing out a scene in her head, sometimes it was just her imagination, and sometimes it was a revelation of truth. A lot of the other scenes that were also presented in the form of a film script took some getting used to as they pulled me from the narrative sometimes. I understand that they were meant to help convey the depths to which Claire saw her life in the form of a movie, how much everything was a performance, but it was a hairbreadth away from a contrivance.
I loved the ultimate reveal at the end and felt like I had been on one hell of a ride.
This is also the second book in which Baudelaire inspires heinous people to elevate cruelty and death to a place of art, so I'm good on B-dog from now on.
A note of caution for sensitive readers: there are a fair amount of descriptions of the mutilated women. While it didn't go as far as some other books, and it was a necessary part of understanding the stakes, there are photographs and events that described in a way that is definitely upsetting and not for every reader.
Overall, I enjoyed this book even more than The Girl Before, and I look forward to more of the psyneudonycmous Delaney's work.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read an early copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
First and foremost, this book was a interesting look into a world I once called my own. I have a BFA in Theatre, and spent some of my four years acquiring that degree playing similar games and learning the techniques that Claire does in her classes. And that's pretty much where the similarity ends.
It's a wild ride as the reader try to suss out how much is Claire acting, if there's something really wrong with her, really wrong with Patrick, and what's really happening the shadowy underworld of the online community at Necropolis.
I enjoyed the occasional piece of misdirection laid out in the form of Claire writing out a scene in her head, sometimes it was just her imagination, and sometimes it was a revelation of truth. A lot of the other scenes that were also presented in the form of a film script took some getting used to as they pulled me from the narrative sometimes. I understand that they were meant to help convey the depths to which Claire saw her life in the form of a movie, how much everything was a performance, but it was a hairbreadth away from a contrivance.
I loved the ultimate reveal at the end and felt like I had been on one hell of a ride.
This is also the second book in which Baudelaire inspires heinous people to elevate cruelty and death to a place of art, so I'm good on B-dog from now on.
A note of caution for sensitive readers: there are a fair amount of descriptions of the mutilated women. While it didn't go as far as some other books, and it was a necessary part of understanding the stakes, there are photographs and events that described in a way that is definitely upsetting and not for every reader.
Overall, I enjoyed this book even more than The Girl Before, and I look forward to more of the psyneudonycmous Delaney's work.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read an early copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This was a compelling read, but I don't know how I feel about it now that I'm finished....haha sorry, that's not a very helpful review.
I did enjoy the fact that you're constantly questioning everything and everyone. And you really don't know who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy" until the very end.
I also enjoyed the script style of some the writing. It was different and really moved the story along.
I did enjoy the fact that you're constantly questioning everything and everyone. And you really don't know who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy" until the very end.
I also enjoyed the script style of some the writing. It was different and really moved the story along.
This book was fantastic! I listened to the Audiobook which may have helped with the storytelling, the character narrations and sound effects made the book very engaging. So much so that I read it in 2 sittings...
This book had so many twists and turns that by the end I felt like I had whiplash - and my oh my what an ending! I think Delaney will be a constant on my bookshelf going forward.
This book had so many twists and turns that by the end I felt like I had whiplash - and my oh my what an ending! I think Delaney will be a constant on my bookshelf going forward.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
TW: suicídio, auto-mutilação, doenças mentais
Acho que este livro é muito difícil de classificar e de avaliar. Duvido que haja alguém que goste mais ou menos, é um livro de se odiar ou de se amar. Pessoalmente, não amei. Tem um início fenomenal, que me apanhou de surpresa e me prendeu imediatamente, e tem um final ainda melhor, do qual não estava nada à espera. Odiei o meio. Achei-o tão parado, tão desnecessariamente grande e dramático. Percebo que seja necessário, porque é um autêntico jogo de confiança connosco, leitores. Não sabemos em que ou quem acreditar, quem fez o quê, quem realmente está a dizer a verdade, e isso foi espetacular. Mas de repente deixou de ser thriller para ser novela mexicana e não apreciei. No entanto! É um livro super viciante, nada entediante para fãs de Baudelaire, creio eu, e com um desenvolvimento surpreendente, em que cada detalhe conta.
Acho que este livro é muito difícil de classificar e de avaliar. Duvido que haja alguém que goste mais ou menos, é um livro de se odiar ou de se amar. Pessoalmente, não amei. Tem um início fenomenal, que me apanhou de surpresa e me prendeu imediatamente, e tem um final ainda melhor, do qual não estava nada à espera. Odiei o meio. Achei-o tão parado, tão desnecessariamente grande e dramático. Percebo que seja necessário, porque é um autêntico jogo de confiança connosco, leitores. Não sabemos em que ou quem acreditar, quem fez o quê, quem realmente está a dizer a verdade, e isso foi espetacular. Mas de repente deixou de ser thriller para ser novela mexicana e não apreciei. No entanto! É um livro super viciante, nada entediante para fãs de Baudelaire, creio eu, e com um desenvolvimento surpreendente, em que cada detalhe conta.
Claire is an actress from England that ran away to New York to start her career over as she made some really bad decisions in England. She isn't finding work in New York either because she doesn't have her green card. She hooks up with a private investigator doing work by trapping cheating husbands. One of the clients ends up dead and Claire and the clients husband are the main suspects. The book was awful. I didn't care for it at all. It was jumpy and it just repeated it self. There was a quick twist that I saw coming a mile away but then there was another twist that I didn't see coming. This book was a rewrite of a book this author wrote years ago but rewrote it because of the success of another book that was written.
Received this book as an ARC for my honest review.
Received this book as an ARC for my honest review.
Spoiler
I enjoyed this one but didn't care for the ending. I was all over the place trying to figure out who was lying but the way it ended was a bit too fantastical and unbelievable for me. I don't think the FBI would even go that far on t.v. I would have liked Claire & Rose to team up and kill Patrick or for Claire to have grabbed the knife and killed him. Still loved the book!
she’s insecure, impulsive, fragile, emotionally incontinent, can’t handle rejection, and although she tries extremely hard to hide it, she craves approval like a junkie craving a fix. what can i say? she’s an actress.
i have a lot of mixed feelings about this and, while i will try my very best to be coherent, i just finished it and the dust hasn't really settled just yet.
i don't very well know how to explain this but let me put it this way: for me, books have to be realistic. not in a sense that i believe what is happening is real, otherwise i wouldn't be able to read fiction, but i have to buy it. i have to believe that in some way, shape or form it could be real.. and i didn't.
i didn't buy it from the start. the concept of (view spoiler). so, that was already a big hurdle to overcome. i kept having to force upon myself this kind of 'assuming any of this is actually plausible..' lens, in order to push through the story. because, while i didn't enjoy the story itself, i did want to know how it ended.
the first twist (in what feels like a series of thousands) was a hard blow for me. i was finally finding i could get into the narrative without questioning it too much, and then everything became increasingly harder to believe. and that just kept on happening with each twist that followed. i understand why the author felt the twists were necessary, and they did a good job using psychology to justify it but, to me, it just felt like adding twists for the sake of adding twists.
i also don't appreciate the style decision of writing portions of the book as if it were the script of the play.
overall, i think this book had great potential, but it got lost in the show the author tried to make of it. i think it would've been more powerful dialed down and stripped of all the unnecessary twists and flourishes. it's really too bad.
i have a lot of mixed feelings about this and, while i will try my very best to be coherent, i just finished it and the dust hasn't really settled just yet.
i don't very well know how to explain this but let me put it this way: for me, books have to be realistic. not in a sense that i believe what is happening is real, otherwise i wouldn't be able to read fiction, but i have to buy it. i have to believe that in some way, shape or form it could be real.. and i didn't.
i didn't buy it from the start. the concept of (view spoiler). so, that was already a big hurdle to overcome. i kept having to force upon myself this kind of 'assuming any of this is actually plausible..' lens, in order to push through the story. because, while i didn't enjoy the story itself, i did want to know how it ended.
the first twist (in what feels like a series of thousands) was a hard blow for me. i was finally finding i could get into the narrative without questioning it too much, and then everything became increasingly harder to believe. and that just kept on happening with each twist that followed. i understand why the author felt the twists were necessary, and they did a good job using psychology to justify it but, to me, it just felt like adding twists for the sake of adding twists.
i also don't appreciate the style decision of writing portions of the book as if it were the script of the play.
overall, i think this book had great potential, but it got lost in the show the author tried to make of it. i think it would've been more powerful dialed down and stripped of all the unnecessary twists and flourishes. it's really too bad.
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-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