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rachelkafka 's review for:
The Chemist
by Stephenie Meyer
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Boy was this insufferable in parts. The first 200 pages or so had me wanting to DNF it so bad, but I was listening to the audiobook, and I have very few audiobooks in my collection, so I figured why not continue. It gets a little better as the plot picks up, but I found the characters very 2 dimensional and unrealistic, so I didn't really care what happened throughout the book. Some major issues for me:
- The first 200 pages felt like a cacophony of "I'm a girl but I wear my boy clothes to disguise myself as a boy, cuz I'm not a 'girl' girl, so I can look like a boy. Until I put on my 'girl' clothes and then I'm a girl until I look like a young boy cuz I'm a girl that's not a girly girl like those other girls"
- More particularly in the beginning, but also scattered throughout the novel, the author used non-specific language to describe items and groups in the book. e.g. "The enemies," "the bad guys," "the weapon," "the chemical mixture," "the safety measures." I'm sure the author did this to build a sense of mystery and suspense, but it came across as very lazy, under-researched writing and did nothing to make me curious about where the plot was going.
Overall, this was a totally forgettable, not great novel. If we could remove the first 100 - 200 pages, I could possibly validate giving this 3 stars, but everything considered, this is definitely one that I recommend passing on.