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A review by mckenzierichardson
Last God Standing by Michael Boatman
3.0
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads' First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
It was really difficult to decide on a rating for this book, because there was so much going on. Some things I liked and some things I absolutely hated, but overall I think 3 stars is a fair rating.
One of the things this book had going for it was that it had a really unique and interesting story. I loved the variety of religious figures that pop up throughout the book. However as cool as the story was, a lot of the plot points and descriptions were really confusing. During every battle scene it was hard to stay interested because I was so confused about what was even going on.
There were good parts and bad parts of Boatman's descriptions. He had a lot of really good metaphors worked into his descriptions throughout the narrative. However, I absolutely hated his descriptions of women. Every woman was highly sexualized when described and was continuously evaluated on her appearances, even Lando's mother. There was also a good deal of weightism throughout the text. When meeting Surabhi's sister, Calliope, for the first time, Lando pokes fun at her weight maliciously in his narrative. When Calliope counters her family's criticisms, she is largely ignored and then easily forgotten about. Also, Boatman's descriptions of mental health issues are really ill-formed. He makes ignorant jokes about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. On the plus side, Boatman does include a variety of racially- and ethically-diverse characters including African-Americans, Caucasians, Japanese-Americans, ect.
So as far as story goes, this one was interesting but confusing and hard to follow. Description-wise there were ups and downs. Character-wise most of the people were either unlikeable or not described well enough to actually get to know, making them pretty up relatable and anonymous. Overall, this book was decent.
It was really difficult to decide on a rating for this book, because there was so much going on. Some things I liked and some things I absolutely hated, but overall I think 3 stars is a fair rating.
One of the things this book had going for it was that it had a really unique and interesting story. I loved the variety of religious figures that pop up throughout the book. However as cool as the story was, a lot of the plot points and descriptions were really confusing. During every battle scene it was hard to stay interested because I was so confused about what was even going on.
There were good parts and bad parts of Boatman's descriptions. He had a lot of really good metaphors worked into his descriptions throughout the narrative. However, I absolutely hated his descriptions of women. Every woman was highly sexualized when described and was continuously evaluated on her appearances, even Lando's mother. There was also a good deal of weightism throughout the text. When meeting Surabhi's sister, Calliope, for the first time, Lando pokes fun at her weight maliciously in his narrative. When Calliope counters her family's criticisms, she is largely ignored and then easily forgotten about. Also, Boatman's descriptions of mental health issues are really ill-formed. He makes ignorant jokes about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. On the plus side, Boatman does include a variety of racially- and ethically-diverse characters including African-Americans, Caucasians, Japanese-Americans, ect.
So as far as story goes, this one was interesting but confusing and hard to follow. Description-wise there were ups and downs. Character-wise most of the people were either unlikeable or not described well enough to actually get to know, making them pretty up relatable and anonymous. Overall, this book was decent.