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A review by bluebirdsongs
Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh
3.0
Well...this was almost a DNF for me. Really I was only able to stick with it was because it was so short. Had it gone on for even another 50 pages I'd have tapped out.
The biggest reason this was a failure to launch for me was I just could not rally behind Victor or his goals. His immaturity and naivete made him an insufferable narrator. This would have been OK if his thought processes developed and evolved over time, but this was not the case. The plot events dictated his decisions and rationales, instead of the other way around. The first-person perspective made Victor a required participant in all the major events, no matter the danger posed to him or the people around him. As a result his internal monologues served to justify why he continually chose to disregard the opinions of his sister and closest friends in favor of following known mobsters and complete strangers.
Victor also repeatedly contradicted his own value system for the sake of the plot. I found it extremely hard to believe that someone as idealistic as Victor who sees the world in terms of "good vs. bad" would be capable of carrying out the level of violence this novel puts on display. Furthermore, how was a privileged American kid whose days were full of basketball practice and beer pong not scared shitless by the level of crime & cruelty he was exposed to in the underbelly of Beijing? All of this seriously stretched plausibility for me and led me to not feel very sympathetic to Victor or invested in his goals.
As far as the plot goes, I had been enjoying the developing mystery until a couple of giveaway clues early on made it extremely obvious to me what the ultimate twist was going to be. I didn't have all the details right and I enjoyed being surprised when some of those came to light. However I had picked out all the right breadcrumbs that put me spot-on for the final reveal. The answer being so obvious to me coupled with Victor's ignorance and stupid decisions made throughout the story left me feeling extremely exasperated by the end and just ready to be done.
For the side characters, Jules was underutilized in the book and showed more character development than her brother despite appearing in the story largely as his set dressing and chauffeur. Also Eli is disgusting and while I could go on as to why I thought so, he isn't worth it. I've already spent enough time here and am ready to move on.
The biggest reason this was a failure to launch for me was I just could not rally behind Victor or his goals. His immaturity and naivete made him an insufferable narrator. This would have been OK if his thought processes developed and evolved over time, but this was not the case. The plot events dictated his decisions and rationales, instead of the other way around. The first-person perspective made Victor a required participant in all the major events, no matter the danger posed to him or the people around him. As a result his internal monologues served to justify why he continually chose to disregard the opinions of his sister and closest friends in favor of following known mobsters and complete strangers.
Victor also repeatedly contradicted his own value system for the sake of the plot. I found it extremely hard to believe that someone as idealistic as Victor who sees the world in terms of "good vs. bad" would be capable of carrying out the level of violence this novel puts on display. Furthermore, how was a privileged American kid whose days were full of basketball practice and beer pong not scared shitless by the level of crime & cruelty he was exposed to in the underbelly of Beijing? All of this seriously stretched plausibility for me and led me to not feel very sympathetic to Victor or invested in his goals.
As far as the plot goes, I had been enjoying the developing mystery until a couple of giveaway clues early on made it extremely obvious to me what the ultimate twist was going to be. I didn't have all the details right and I enjoyed being surprised when some of those came to light. However I had picked out all the right breadcrumbs that put me spot-on for the final reveal. The answer being so obvious to me coupled with Victor's ignorance and stupid decisions made throughout the story left me feeling extremely exasperated by the end and just ready to be done.
For the side characters, Jules was underutilized in the book and showed more character development than her brother despite appearing in the story largely as his set dressing and chauffeur. Also Eli is disgusting and while I could go on as to why I thought so, he isn't worth it. I've already spent enough time here and am ready to move on.