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A review by lady_moon
Some Faraway Place by Lauren Shippen
3.5
Rep: plus size lesbian Jewish MC, pan latina love interest, Jewish side characters, queer side characters
Ok, so... this book is truly meant for the listeners of the podcast. And it really shows early on. I started listening to it, in attempt to catch up with the plot but eventually, somewhere close to the end of the second season, I decided to hell with it. I just wanted to continue with the book. (I'll keep listening to the podcast tho, it's good.)
However, this gave me this... specific feel of a lot-ness going on. There were cameos of all the characters from the podcast. There were some quite important stories for these characters that are told in merely a few sentences and if you haven't listened to the podcast you hear about for the first time. I felt a little out of depth, not gonna lie. Like, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that Rose, our MC, barely knows and understands, if at all, which makes it feel like there are really high stakes and mystery when there... isn't? At all?
To be honest, the whole book felt like where there is really loud music in the room (i.e. the whole background cast) while you're trying to talk with someone (i.e. Rose). I felt like I was distracted by something to learn about Rose almost the whole time - there were the online updates from Aaron and Emily, then Damien appears, then every single character from the podcast appears. Like, all of this is great, I loved the online updates, I love Damien but... all of this distracted me from actually caring about Rose as much as I cared about the characters in the previous two books? Only towards the very end I actually started to truly understand Rose and see more where she's coming from. For the big portion of the book we're given these bits and pieces of why and how and what but there was never a true follow up to them. Not until the last couple of chapters.
Honestly, this is the only book I would say it advisable to listen to the podcast first. Simply because you already would know about the background stories and wouldn't be distracted by them.
Ok, so... this book is truly meant for the listeners of the podcast. And it really shows early on. I started listening to it, in attempt to catch up with the plot but eventually, somewhere close to the end of the second season, I decided to hell with it. I just wanted to continue with the book. (I'll keep listening to the podcast tho, it's good.)
However, this gave me this... specific feel of a lot-ness going on. There were cameos of all the characters from the podcast. There were some quite important stories for these characters that are told in merely a few sentences and if you haven't listened to the podcast you hear about for the first time. I felt a little out of depth, not gonna lie. Like, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that Rose, our MC, barely knows and understands, if at all, which makes it feel like there are really high stakes and mystery when there... isn't? At all?
To be honest, the whole book felt like where there is really loud music in the room (i.e. the whole background cast) while you're trying to talk with someone (i.e. Rose). I felt like I was distracted by something to learn about Rose almost the whole time - there were the online updates from Aaron and Emily, then Damien appears, then every single character from the podcast appears. Like, all of this is great, I loved the online updates, I love Damien but... all of this distracted me from actually caring about Rose as much as I cared about the characters in the previous two books? Only towards the very end I actually started to truly understand Rose and see more where she's coming from. For the big portion of the book we're given these bits and pieces of why and how and what but there was never a true follow up to them. Not until the last couple of chapters.
Honestly, this is the only book I would say it advisable to listen to the podcast first. Simply because you already would know about the background stories and wouldn't be distracted by them.