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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Captivating psychological thriller full of assumed identities and dogmatic extremism. Who are you if your life has become lying? Creation Lake was witty and smart and inquisitive and I enjoyed getting to read it while also in France. A great book for the bus ride.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“I do not set up models. What I do is live. And because of the way I have lived, I know what is possible.”
This was a beautifully written book - I have dozens of highlights of phrases that I found so charming and insightful and clever. Unfortunately, the many beautiful phrases didn’t coalesce into anything particularly meaningful or memorable for me.
This was a beautifully written book - I have dozens of highlights of phrases that I found so charming and insightful and clever. Unfortunately, the many beautiful phrases didn’t coalesce into anything particularly meaningful or memorable for me.
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
very engrossing, delightful narrator. i wish the last scenes were a little more drawn out but veey enjoyable.
ya know the themes were loud but the plot was whispering
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
(2.5 stars)
Hmm. Interesting premise, but it felt flat to me, when I expected tension and thrills.
The main thing was that the stakes of the novel did not feel high to me, and as such, I didn't get a feeling of buildup or release that I would expect from a thriller. My emotional engagement with this novel felt like a plateau the whole time.
In the novel, the narrator ("Sadie Smith") is given a task to infiltrate a radical cult-like farming commune in France. It was hard for me to buy the idea of this group posing a major threat, considering that they don't actually do much in the novel other than wait for their reclusive leader to contact them. The novel feels more philosophical than action-oriented, which wasn't what I had expected. I don't mind philosophical novels, but Sadie is very amoral and detached, such that the moral quandaries weren't super interesting to me. Again, low (moral) stakes.
I'm the first to admit that I've never been into espionage novels, and perhaps that pre-colored my view of the novel. I've also never read Rachel Kushner's works before, so maybe I just didn't choose the right gateway!
A fresh take on the eco-thriller subgenre, told from the point of view of the young infiltrator tasked with bringing down an environmental commune in the French countryside. Morally ambiguous, an 'unlikable' narrator, with meditations on philosophy, capitalism, humanity's origins, and the inevitable gaps between idealism and reality in counterculture movements - this book felt like it swallowed up a whole raft of contemporary themes and found a convincing, entertaining way to regurgitate them in novel form. Great work at providing a novelistic feast, compared to a lot of the spare, singular-focus work that has been coming out recently.
'Sadie', our narrator, has a wicked sense of humour, and a professional manipulative streak that doesn't fail to charm, even as her methods provoke unease. It's a thrilling ride, but the best sections, in my view, involved the philosophizing of the group's self-important leaders - intellectual poseurs who fail to live up to their principles - and Sadie's caustic commentary on their hypocrisy. Also, the long, meandering emails from the group's hermit-like guiding star, offering his theories about the 'Thals' (Neanderthals), are cleverly worked into the narrative.
Gets a 4-star rating rather than a 5 due to the rushed ending, which felt over-convenient, and lacked the dramatic punch that we had been building towards. Great voice, theme, and content, however. Will definitely read some more Kushner after this.
'Sadie', our narrator, has a wicked sense of humour, and a professional manipulative streak that doesn't fail to charm, even as her methods provoke unease. It's a thrilling ride, but the best sections, in my view, involved the philosophizing of the group's self-important leaders - intellectual poseurs who fail to live up to their principles - and Sadie's caustic commentary on their hypocrisy. Also, the long, meandering emails from the group's hermit-like guiding star, offering his theories about the 'Thals' (Neanderthals), are cleverly worked into the narrative.
Gets a 4-star rating rather than a 5 due to the rushed ending, which felt over-convenient, and lacked the dramatic punch that we had been building towards. Great voice, theme, and content, however. Will definitely read some more Kushner after this.