Take a photo of a barcode or cover
carryonamelia 's review for:
The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik
by David Arnold
DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW EXCITED I AM FOR THIS BOOK IT'S BEEN AT LEAST 2 YEARS SINCE I'VE READ A DAVID ARNOLD BOOK AND I MISS HIS OBSCURE AMAZING WRITING IN MY LIFE AND NOW IT'S COMING BACK AND I'M GOING TO HAVE IT AGAIN. (Also I wanna reread Mosquitoland and Kids of Appetite before this releases)
After I read it: This book was everything I wanted and more. It was, as the title states, strange, but in the best way possible. The humor was obscure, and there were so many things that happened that I was like "that would only happen in a David Arnold book" but it was awesome to read. I knew from the cover, the title, and the blurb that this book wasn't going to be your average YA novel. And it definitely was. It was one of those novels that stands out to you so much because you know you can't find anything like it from anyone else. I think that's why I love David Arnold's writing so much. It's so different, so peculiar, that it stands out to you. I also loved that this book touched A LOT on mental health and our relationships with each other. To be honest, the plot was obviously engaging, but I think the big part of this novel was the characters and they way they interact with each others. This book felt like a study, to me, of how well we know each other and our connections with our friends. It was super fascinating and I loved that. Plus, even the side characters are extremely enjoyable, which I loved because I love side characters that you grow attached to. There were also so many different aspects of this book that I loved. It was super interesting because Noah writes these "concise histories" in which he connects things in history, so it was super cool to learn things that I never would have learned before. He talks a lot about dates and how often times things in history connect which was so interesting and I loved it. Plus the book had a lot of really excellent quotes and there were a lot of moments with Noah where I could totally relate. I thought the aspect of mental health and being scared of your future was really well done. David Arnold is largely known for writing books that touch upon the subject of mental health (especially Mosquitoland) and Noah Hypnotik definitely did not lack that. It was super cool to see difficult subjects like guilt, pushing people away, fear of the future, etc to be talked about. And it was very nice because in the end Noah does get better. Plus I related to a lot of Noah's struggles. I related to pushing people away and not wanting other people to control your future and all of those things. Also, like I said before, it was really nice to see all of Noah's relationships shown as important. From his relationship with his mom to his relationship with his two best friends, I felt like all of the relationships were complex and fully fleshed out. I loved that the book almost felt like an analysis of our relationships with others. I felt like it developed the complexity of human interactions and I thought that was super neat. You see that none of Noah's relationships are perfect, which I love. Plus you see Noah realize that he does push people away/mistreat his friends sometimes and he tries to better himself and he grows to appreciate certain people more. Speaking of characters, I feel like I can't finish this review without talking about a certain one: Penny Oakman. I love her so much. She's Noah's sister and she's in 8th grade and she wears all of these strange clothes and she obsesses over movies and she cares deeply about racism and I just want to protect her. Her relationship with Noah was byfar my favorite to follow, because they have such a complicated relationship throughout the whole novel. You see that he definitely neglects her, but as the novel goes on he tries to be there for her more. Before ending this review, I'd also like to talk about the science fiction aspect of the novel. After a party and one strange night, Noah finds that small details of his life have changed. His mom now has a scar that wasn't there before, his best friend who was previously a hardcore DC fan is now a Marvel fan, etc, etc. This is the main plot of the novel (although I'd argue that the novel is more about our relationships with other people) and it's super interesting to see. In the end, it turns out that Overall, I just really loved this book. I think it was my favorite David Arnold book to date. It was strange, funny, and touched on a lot of important subjects. I highly recommend it.
After I read it: This book was everything I wanted and more. It was, as the title states, strange, but in the best way possible. The humor was obscure, and there were so many things that happened that I was like "that would only happen in a David Arnold book" but it was awesome to read. I knew from the cover, the title, and the blurb that this book wasn't going to be your average YA novel. And it definitely was. It was one of those novels that stands out to you so much because you know you can't find anything like it from anyone else. I think that's why I love David Arnold's writing so much. It's so different, so peculiar, that it stands out to you. I also loved that this book touched A LOT on mental health and our relationships with each other. To be honest, the plot was obviously engaging, but I think the big part of this novel was the characters and they way they interact with each others. This book felt like a study, to me, of how well we know each other and our connections with our friends. It was super fascinating and I loved that. Plus, even the side characters are extremely enjoyable, which I loved because I love side characters that you grow attached to. There were also so many different aspects of this book that I loved. It was super interesting because Noah writes these "concise histories" in which he connects things in history, so it was super cool to learn things that I never would have learned before. He talks a lot about dates and how often times things in history connect which was so interesting and I loved it. Plus the book had a lot of really excellent quotes and there were a lot of moments with Noah where I could totally relate. I thought the aspect of mental health and being scared of your future was really well done. David Arnold is largely known for writing books that touch upon the subject of mental health (especially Mosquitoland) and Noah Hypnotik definitely did not lack that. It was super cool to see difficult subjects like guilt, pushing people away, fear of the future, etc to be talked about. And it was very nice because in the end Noah does get better. Plus I related to a lot of Noah's struggles. I related to pushing people away and not wanting other people to control your future and all of those things. Also, like I said before, it was really nice to see all of Noah's relationships shown as important. From his relationship with his mom to his relationship with his two best friends, I felt like all of the relationships were complex and fully fleshed out. I loved that the book almost felt like an analysis of our relationships with others. I felt like it developed the complexity of human interactions and I thought that was super neat. You see that none of Noah's relationships are perfect, which I love. Plus you see Noah realize that he does push people away/mistreat his friends sometimes and he tries to better himself and he grows to appreciate certain people more. Speaking of characters, I feel like I can't finish this review without talking about a certain one: Penny Oakman. I love her so much. She's Noah's sister and she's in 8th grade and she wears all of these strange clothes and she obsesses over movies and she cares deeply about racism and I just want to protect her. Her relationship with Noah was byfar my favorite to follow, because they have such a complicated relationship throughout the whole novel. You see that he definitely neglects her, but as the novel goes on he tries to be there for her more. Before ending this review, I'd also like to talk about the science fiction aspect of the novel. After a party and one strange night, Noah finds that small details of his life have changed. His mom now has a scar that wasn't there before, his best friend who was previously a hardcore DC fan is now a Marvel fan, etc, etc. This is the main plot of the novel (although I'd argue that the novel is more about our relationships with other people) and it's super interesting to see. In the end, it turns out that