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A review by saltycorpse
Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Lewis Padgett
2.0
I went into this novel super stoked, because it's future-murders, and a serial killer! It was a mystery that was gonna have twists and turns and be amazing.
Plus, the world-building was well-done and immersive and detailed. To an extent.
But then it attempted this half-assed romance plot that never materialized into anything substantial, and was never explained properly. And the murders were graphic and sexual and awful....but for no reason other than to be 'shocking'. Compounded with the nature of the world post-Pittsburgh being nuked by a terrorist (how original) the message of the book seems to be "people are perverse and shitty to an extent we never dreamed of." And? So? It read like a dark Idiocracy that took itself way too seriously. I think the author took time to build a world, but then it was just void of any commentary, really.
I'm not against violence in novels or movies, but it's just fucking straight-up lazy when writers employ it to simply make their work seem "edgy" without any other commentary. Sometimes, the commentary is that there IS no commentary, that it's just brutal and senseless - but that wasn't the point of violence and murder in this book, so it just became confusing and, honestly, boring.
Nothing intricate was explained about Albion either - she's the nucleus of the novel and tells her story in her own words, but there's zero analysis (and again, commentary) on religious zealotry and what people are willing to do, what people get away with, survivor's guilt, trauma, Stockholm Syndrome, and literally every important piece of her psyche. Nothing. It could have been a really rich exploration that could have been painful and amazing, but it was just dropped flat and instead Albion became Dominic's wife-replacement. How boring and lazy.
The writing was good, the pace was good - but the plot ultimately was absolute shite, and the lack of anything ultimately meaningful - or even nihilistic - was frustrating, and left me thinking "well wtf, this was a waste of time."
Plus, the world-building was well-done and immersive and detailed. To an extent.
But then it attempted this half-assed romance plot that never materialized into anything substantial, and was never explained properly. And the murders were graphic and sexual and awful....but for no reason other than to be 'shocking'. Compounded with the nature of the world post-Pittsburgh being nuked by a terrorist (how original) the message of the book seems to be "people are perverse and shitty to an extent we never dreamed of." And? So? It read like a dark Idiocracy that took itself way too seriously. I think the author took time to build a world, but then it was just void of any commentary, really.
I'm not against violence in novels or movies, but it's just fucking straight-up lazy when writers employ it to simply make their work seem "edgy" without any other commentary. Sometimes, the commentary is that there IS no commentary, that it's just brutal and senseless - but that wasn't the point of violence and murder in this book, so it just became confusing and, honestly, boring.
Nothing intricate was explained about Albion either - she's the nucleus of the novel and tells her story in her own words, but there's zero analysis (and again, commentary) on religious zealotry and what people are willing to do, what people get away with, survivor's guilt, trauma, Stockholm Syndrome, and literally every important piece of her psyche. Nothing. It could have been a really rich exploration that could have been painful and amazing, but it was just dropped flat and instead Albion became Dominic's wife-replacement. How boring and lazy.
The writing was good, the pace was good - but the plot ultimately was absolute shite, and the lack of anything ultimately meaningful - or even nihilistic - was frustrating, and left me thinking "well wtf, this was a waste of time."