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A review by justinkhchen
Man from Primrose Lane by James Renner
emotional
mysterious
4.25
A slightly bloated sci-fi thriller head trip, but impressive nevertheless, I picked up The Man from Primrose Lane based on a very casual recommendation, plus my immediate intrigue towards the curious title; had I done a bit more research (literally by looking at its GR tags), I would've been more mentally prepped with where the narrative ended up. If you're a fan of Blake Crouch (particularly Dark Matter and Recursion), as well as The Other Side of Night by Adam Hamdy, this one will be right up your alley.
(The novel was at one point being developed as a film adaptation with Bradley Cooper starring—that would've been SO good!)
I particularly love the exploration on obsession, how it eats away at one's normality, and the blurred morality of intent behind such act (the obsession of a stalker towards its victim versus the obsession of a husband at finding his wife's murderer — are they one and the same?). With well-articulated heavy emotions (depression, grief, etc.), I was thoroughly invested in the character journey throughout the first 2/3 of The Man from Primrose Lane, and this was in addition to the central mystery that was piling up nicely with ghastly visuals and perplexing clues.
In retrospect, I appreciate the more outlandish direction of the final 1/3, but in the moment I was thrown off by the speculative sci-fi details, and found them to be unnecessarily wordy and impacting pacing. There were also plot details where the author had tipped over the logic he set up from intricate to convoluted, to the point it was difficult keeping track of who, what, and when.
Even with flaws (some inflated due to my ignorance), The Man from Primrose Lane is passionately written (almost to a manic degree), and I really enjoy its stylish execution (DO NOT do the audiobook with this title — James Renner often switches scene mid character dialog —which on paper I find to be quite a creative accomplishment, but has to be confusing by ears). Not one of my top recommendation for stories featuring this trope, but it's close.
(The novel was at one point being developed as a film adaptation with Bradley Cooper starring—that would've been SO good!)
I particularly love the exploration on obsession, how it eats away at one's normality, and the blurred morality of intent behind such act (the obsession of a stalker towards its victim versus the obsession of a husband at finding his wife's murderer — are they one and the same?). With well-articulated heavy emotions (depression, grief, etc.), I was thoroughly invested in the character journey throughout the first 2/3 of The Man from Primrose Lane, and this was in addition to the central mystery that was piling up nicely with ghastly visuals and perplexing clues.
In retrospect, I appreciate the more outlandish direction of the final 1/3, but in the moment I was thrown off by the speculative sci-fi details, and found them to be unnecessarily wordy and impacting pacing. There were also plot details where the author had tipped over the logic he set up from intricate to convoluted, to the point it was difficult keeping track of who, what, and when.
Even with flaws (some inflated due to my ignorance), The Man from Primrose Lane is passionately written (almost to a manic degree), and I really enjoy its stylish execution (DO NOT do the audiobook with this title — James Renner often switches scene mid character dialog —which on paper I find to be quite a creative accomplishment, but has to be confusing by ears). Not one of my top recommendation for stories featuring this trope, but it's close.