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A review by billymac1962
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
1.0
I started this book on November 27th.
On the morning of November 28th I woke with a sore throat. This escalated to one rotten-ass cold that settled in my chest (anything I get goes straight to my lungs), rolling through 9 days of violent hacking and sneezing (one of which tore my abdomen muscles, making subsequent coughs, sneezes and nose blowings feel as if I was being driven through with a samurai sword), up to today, where I can finally say I am feeling quite a bit better. (For those wondering, I am fully vaccinated, and went for a Covid test just in case: Negative)
This turning of the corner healthwise is well met with the completion of this book. I finished it over lunch and can honestly say I felt instantly better once that last word was read.
Never again. Never, never, never again will I ignore that DNF urge.
This has not been a stellar reading year for me. I have been blaming my disinterest, apathy, impatience on the fact that other life factors are dominating my thoughts, and so I was beginning to think some books may have not been given fair shots.
Having heard very good things about this book from a trusted source, I refused to give in to the urge to drop it and move on to something else. So I suffered, mouth-breathing and curling into wracking coughing fits, through every painstaking page of this novel.
This was not anywhere near as good or interesting as the synopsis would imply. A group of six college friends decide to play a game where the consequences involve performing psychologically difficult (embarrassing at first, then escalating) acts. This sounded fantastic and totally up my alley. And for the first twenty pages or so, I found the character development was already
in high gear. This was feeling like a five star read, easy.
However, as the story moves forth, the game itself (which took excruciatingly long to get going), or specifically the consequences being forced to occur, were brief and for the most part dull to read. Surrounding the game was worse. The mundane details of these friends' relationships were dull and uninteresting, which may not have been so tedious if not for that dangling carrot of psychological consequences. It goes without saying that the pacing of this thing was frustrating at best.
And after trudging through 340 pages of muddled, boring details and unsatisfying developments, I get that ending?!
I resent this book every bit as much as the chest infection I just fought.
I do believe my disappointing reading year is mostly due to some unfortunate book selections. I am looking forward to my next one with renewed optimism.
On the morning of November 28th I woke with a sore throat. This escalated to one rotten-ass cold that settled in my chest (anything I get goes straight to my lungs), rolling through 9 days of violent hacking and sneezing (one of which tore my abdomen muscles, making subsequent coughs, sneezes and nose blowings feel as if I was being driven through with a samurai sword), up to today, where I can finally say I am feeling quite a bit better. (For those wondering, I am fully vaccinated, and went for a Covid test just in case: Negative)
This turning of the corner healthwise is well met with the completion of this book. I finished it over lunch and can honestly say I felt instantly better once that last word was read.
Never again. Never, never, never again will I ignore that DNF urge.
This has not been a stellar reading year for me. I have been blaming my disinterest, apathy, impatience on the fact that other life factors are dominating my thoughts, and so I was beginning to think some books may have not been given fair shots.
Having heard very good things about this book from a trusted source, I refused to give in to the urge to drop it and move on to something else. So I suffered, mouth-breathing and curling into wracking coughing fits, through every painstaking page of this novel.
This was not anywhere near as good or interesting as the synopsis would imply. A group of six college friends decide to play a game where the consequences involve performing psychologically difficult (embarrassing at first, then escalating) acts. This sounded fantastic and totally up my alley. And for the first twenty pages or so, I found the character development was already
in high gear. This was feeling like a five star read, easy.
However, as the story moves forth, the game itself (which took excruciatingly long to get going), or specifically the consequences being forced to occur, were brief and for the most part dull to read. Surrounding the game was worse. The mundane details of these friends' relationships were dull and uninteresting, which may not have been so tedious if not for that dangling carrot of psychological consequences. It goes without saying that the pacing of this thing was frustrating at best.
And after trudging through 340 pages of muddled, boring details and unsatisfying developments, I get that ending?!
I resent this book every bit as much as the chest infection I just fought.
I do believe my disappointing reading year is mostly due to some unfortunate book selections. I am looking forward to my next one with renewed optimism.