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nairam1173 's review for:
The Ethan I Was Before
by Ali Standish
I'm conflicted about this one.
The voice--both character and author--got my attention immediately, and my care for Ethan pulled me through until the end. I was interested in what was happening and found it compelling to read.
I've wondered a little if the fact that it has a similar plot device to a book I read and really liked last year made the device in this book a little bit of a harder sell. Even thinking about them side by side, though, it didn't feel like this book earned it as much as the other one did (I'm being quite vague because Spoilers). I don't know. Something about it was unsatisfying.
This book also had a really strange tone shift part way through that I don't think really WAS supposed to be a tone shift--and yet parts of that plot thread remained in play for dozens of pages, confusing the tone and genre and point of the story, I think.
I also really liked a lot of what it was trying to do, but something about it just fell a shade onto the side of too tidy. Too exact. A little too on point and on the nose, not even really in message, but something in the plotting and characters, which lost some emotion and meaning in the process. At the same time, I found parts of Coralee's story resolved in really unsatisfying ways. It's weird to have a book that seemed both too well put together and still not quite all /there/.
It's hard because there were many elements I really wanted to like. The subplot with his brother was probably my favourite aspect all around.
I will be interested to read more work from this author, but ultimately this was a miss for me.
The voice--both character and author--got my attention immediately, and my care for Ethan pulled me through until the end. I was interested in what was happening and found it compelling to read.
I've wondered a little if the fact that it has a similar plot device to a book I read and really liked last year made the device in this book a little bit of a harder sell. Even thinking about them side by side, though, it didn't feel like this book earned it as much as the other one did (I'm being quite vague because Spoilers). I don't know. Something about it was unsatisfying.
This book also had a really strange tone shift part way through that I don't think really WAS supposed to be a tone shift--and yet parts of that plot thread remained in play for dozens of pages, confusing the tone and genre and point of the story, I think.
I also really liked a lot of what it was trying to do, but something about it just fell a shade onto the side of too tidy. Too exact. A little too on point and on the nose, not even really in message, but something in the plotting and characters, which lost some emotion and meaning in the process. At the same time, I found parts of Coralee's story resolved in really unsatisfying ways. It's weird to have a book that seemed both too well put together and still not quite all /there/.
It's hard because there were many elements I really wanted to like. The subplot with his brother was probably my favourite aspect all around.
I will be interested to read more work from this author, but ultimately this was a miss for me.