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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Very well paced book, I thought the mystery unraveled at just the right speed, kept me hooked and guessing while also asking thought-provoking questions about predeterminism and nature vs nurture and community and power
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was entertaining to the point where I read it entirely without it feeling like a burden. The characters are interesting and complex. They’re basically the highlight of the book in my opinion. However, the plot falls flat mainly because I couldn’t connect with the narrative style. It is messy, chaotic, all over the place. Many phrases, metaphors, or analogies didn’t do it for me. This makes the plot equally messy and all over the place. Even after the third act reveal and explanation the story felt unevenly paced, bland and unsatisfying. It also didn’t help that the plot takes a huge detour from the expectations the book itself built. It’s almost as if the story described in the back cover is something entirely different than the actual plot of the book.
Despite these criticisms I still believe it’s a decent book and there’s a lot of potential to the author’s narrative style. It needed a better editing in my opinion.
Despite these criticisms I still believe it’s a decent book and there’s a lot of potential to the author’s narrative style. It needed a better editing in my opinion.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder
dark
mysterious
reflective
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know what to expect from Turton, after 7 1/2 deaths, I know he can come up with some creative things, so I went in with my head ready to figure it all out!
We are in a post apocalyptic world, but it feels like its a hundred years in the past at the same time, no sense of year is given. A terrible fog filled with bugs has entered the earth and destroys anything it touches, literally tears it apart.
The Island is where the last of humanity lives with 3 surviving scientists. It is there job to try to reclaim humanity and fix the fog, in a sense.
Before we can get into the trickiness of that, a murder happens, the murder must be solved or the fog will take out the remaining survivors. they have less than 2 days.
No of course there are way more details, and much more weirdness that makes this not such a simple solving of a murder, but if I get into those details, it really will ruin the book for you. It's more fun to be slightly confused by them until they are explained. Then perhaps continue to be confused, and maybe a bit upset.
Oh, don't forget the AI feature, Abi. Abi is a voice in everyone's head and can speak to you and share others thoughts with you (sometimes) Abi isn't exactly reliable and may make you question your own sanity, let alone the sanity of the villagers.
I can't tell you more without spoilers, but man, if you read this, I'd love to chat it out with you, it had so much I really enjoyed about it!
We are in a post apocalyptic world, but it feels like its a hundred years in the past at the same time, no sense of year is given. A terrible fog filled with bugs has entered the earth and destroys anything it touches, literally tears it apart.
The Island is where the last of humanity lives with 3 surviving scientists. It is there job to try to reclaim humanity and fix the fog, in a sense.
Before we can get into the trickiness of that, a murder happens, the murder must be solved or the fog will take out the remaining survivors. they have less than 2 days.
No of course there are way more details, and much more weirdness that makes this not such a simple solving of a murder, but if I get into those details, it really will ruin the book for you. It's more fun to be slightly confused by them until they are explained. Then perhaps continue to be confused, and maybe a bit upset.
Oh, don't forget the AI feature, Abi. Abi is a voice in everyone's head and can speak to you and share others thoughts with you (sometimes) Abi isn't exactly reliable and may make you question your own sanity, let alone the sanity of the villagers.
I can't tell you more without spoilers, but man, if you read this, I'd love to chat it out with you, it had so much I really enjoyed about it!
Maybe I'm too harsh. The premise should make this book interesting. The twists and turns should keep you on edge. They didn't, not with me. And maybe I'm prejudiced, because I loved his debut novel so much, that, just like with his second novel, I can't help comparing his work to that and wondering what went wrong. Where is the colorful cast of character and the strong-voice narrator of that first novel? I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters here. They felt like cardboard statues. The main character annoyed me, the narrator seemed more than a gimmick, there is a point to the novel, but it has been done so many times before and much better. And the writing is...rather on the sloppy side. At one point there's a description of those that come to the island and it goes something like this: "Their faces were all grief-stricken and smug" (paraphrasing, but that's the general idea). How in the world can you look both grief-stricken and smug at the same time? The smug is only added because we're not supposed to really sympathize with those people, but really, the combination is jarring and distracting. Maybe the next one will be better...The author's premises are always good...it's the execution that falls flat.
Loved Evelyn Hardcastle. Liked Devil and the Dark Water. This one was not fun or interesting. Very preachy. Won’t be following this author anymore.