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salval61 's review for:

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
4.0

I'm proud of myself that I stuck with this book to the end. I was a bit confused for about the first quarter of the book, wondering if it was too over-my-head (think Black Mirror) for me to fully enjoy, but then I GOT it. It also helped that I got the paper version to supplement the audio (free from the library) with which I’d started. I liked being able to flip back to parts.

I read it to meet the requirements of my "pick a book based on its spine" reading challenge.

The novel is similar to a short story collection, containing a wide variety of points of view and writing styles between chapters. Sometimes the timelines and characters overlapped; other times they seemed to come out of nowhere and then just as quickly disappear, leaving me hanging. The Candy House is a thought-provoking read, a springboard for deeper discussions on society.

Sidenote: Particularly if you are a fan of the character of Dr. Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds), you might get a kick out the chapter "Rhyme Scheme." For that, the audio version, which contains a cast of character voices, is best.