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A review by degroovy
Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Dead Eleven disappointed me in a lot of ways. I was immediately drawn in by the interesting retro looking cover, which is how I usually pick up most of my random buys. I thought the idea of an island obsessed with the 1990s bolstered by a unique way of telling the story through newspaper snippets, flashbacks, text conversations, etc could yield an interesting cult-like story.
Unfortunately it all just pretty much turned out to be a gimmick that was under baked and really didn't have too much weight on the plot. The characters are also paper thin, I feel like the book is telling us why we should be rooting for Harper, Lily, and Willow but not SHOWING us why we should, they don't progress in any definable way and I found them extremely forgettable.
I also thought the pacing was pretty rough, every time I put it down I had a very, very difficult time finding the willpower to pick it up again. It was especially bad around the middle of the novel with information that we already know being rehashed through various mediums for at least 150 pages or so. I really feel like if DE had been better edited there might be a somewhat more interesting, better paced quick mystery but it's easily at least 100 pages too long and by the end it was a real slog to finish. There are some tense scenes that are done fairly well so I do want to give credit to the author but a lot of the tension vanishes fairly quickly within a few pages.
Unfortunately it all just pretty much turned out to be a gimmick that was under baked and really didn't have too much weight on the plot. The characters are also paper thin, I feel like the book is telling us why we should be rooting for Harper, Lily, and Willow but not SHOWING us why we should, they don't progress in any definable way and I found them extremely forgettable.
I also thought the pacing was pretty rough, every time I put it down I had a very, very difficult time finding the willpower to pick it up again. It was especially bad around the middle of the novel with information that we already know being rehashed through various mediums for at least 150 pages or so. I really feel like if DE had been better edited there might be a somewhat more interesting, better paced quick mystery but it's easily at least 100 pages too long and by the end it was a real slog to finish. There are some tense scenes that are done fairly well so I do want to give credit to the author but a lot of the tension vanishes fairly quickly within a few pages.