Reviews - Telephone | The StoryGraph

450 reviews for:

Telephone

Percival Everett

4.04 AVERAGE

moviegoer's review

3.25

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad fast-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: Complicated

peak_kat's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have so many thoughts on this book, but I’m having trouble putting them all together enough to write them here. Beautiful writing, but the 5 star from me relates more to the complexity of this literary experiment.

My version was version B I believe (compass is NW).

amiewhittemore's review against another edition

4.25

A really unique and interesting novel. Our narrator is going through a tough time, to say the least, and at times I wondered if he was unreliable. Or rather, I wondered what he wasn't showing us, what his story would look like from. other characters' perspectives, which I think is a sign of good writing: we are deeply immersed in Zach's POV on what's going on. There are some structural beats/choices I didn't fully understand but liked and would enjoy discussing in a book group / class situation, such as the use of different chess moves, the cataloging of bones at a paleontology site, etc. I mean, I "got" it but I didn't do a deep dive into the ins and outs of these moves.

Anyway, all to say, definitely recommend!

jashanac's review against another edition

3.5

TL;DR:
I liked this, but I didn't love it. I found myself feeling detached from the characters and story, despite it being a very sad and touching story.

Re-Readability:
This isn't even really the type of book I tend to re-read, but this one in particular I don't see myself ever wanting to re-read.

Writing:
The writing was solid for me, but not necessarily memorable/impactful. Some of the stylistic choices -- breaking up paragraphs with different random things in various sections (scientific descriptions of bone and fossil findings... then chess moves... etc.) didn't do anything for me. I'm sure there's some clever reason for it, but it just felt random for me.

Characters:
The MC was prickly, to say the least, but I actually liked him. I don't know if I'd like him in the other versions of the book where the plot differs due to him making different choices... but the one I read I enjoyed him.

Plot:
Not really sure about the side plot here... again, I'm sure there are Important Reasons for it, but it felt a bit thrown in to me.

Content Warnings

heyitsmichaeljay's review against another edition

3.0

Not nearly as good as a lot of Everett’s other work, but not bad either.

tbr_what2readnext's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

What do we live for?…
Our children? Our careers? Doing good in the world?

I was excited to try another book by this author after reading James. This is a book about love, loss, and attempts at making life meaningful. It’s sad, profound, and redemptive. It’s a bit academic at times, however, and may not feel accessible to all readers.