Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by bookishbehavior
In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw
2.0
More like a 1.5.
Maybe some spoilers here...but I don't really think so.
Whew. This was a chore. I don't remember the last time it took me two weeks to read a less than 300 page book. But, here we are.
This was kind of a mess with some dashes of brilliance throughout. It isn't entirely sure what it wants to be from the beginning. Is Daniel a doppelganger? Is Daniel just a part of Luke's fractured psyche? Is he a second personality fighting for control? Personally, I think the last one is what DeLeeuw was going for here but he attempts to inject both a doppelganger narrative AND a mental illness narrative. These are not the same things. At all. And it just leaves you scratching your head. I'm still not entirely sure just what happened at the end and, frankly, I don't really care at this point.
Not a lot happens throughout this story. It felt like a bunch of jumbled scenes stuck together without a lot of cohesion and this brought me a great deal of frustration. I nearly didn't finish it. Had DeLeeuw chosen a specific path to put these characters on and built into it, we could have gotten some closure with these people but, hell...I don't even really understand what happened to Luke's mother. I'm sure it all has something to do with this mental illness being hereditary but it isn't entirely clear on that so...It mostly just leaves you lost.
All that being said there is some great stuff here and there. The writing isn't terrible, it's just a mostly boring story, so I believe this guy has some talent as an author. Some of his ideas and use of metaphor, especially when in reference to mental illness, is really beautifully done. There are strokes of genius tossed throughout this book as well as a few instances of actually terrifying scenes.
On top of the really bad cover, it just didn't work for me, in the end. It didn't flow very well, it didn't feel consistent or coherent and I still am not entirely sure just what happened at the end. I don't need everything wrapped up in a neat little bow but SOME answers would be nice. "Daniel Isn't Real" comes out December 6th, 2019...the trailers look great but I can only hope it's a lot better than the book. (Update...the movie sucked too.
Maybe some spoilers here...but I don't really think so.
Whew. This was a chore. I don't remember the last time it took me two weeks to read a less than 300 page book. But, here we are.
This was kind of a mess with some dashes of brilliance throughout. It isn't entirely sure what it wants to be from the beginning. Is Daniel a doppelganger? Is Daniel just a part of Luke's fractured psyche? Is he a second personality fighting for control? Personally, I think the last one is what DeLeeuw was going for here but he attempts to inject both a doppelganger narrative AND a mental illness narrative. These are not the same things. At all. And it just leaves you scratching your head. I'm still not entirely sure just what happened at the end and, frankly, I don't really care at this point.
Not a lot happens throughout this story. It felt like a bunch of jumbled scenes stuck together without a lot of cohesion and this brought me a great deal of frustration. I nearly didn't finish it. Had DeLeeuw chosen a specific path to put these characters on and built into it, we could have gotten some closure with these people but, hell...I don't even really understand what happened to Luke's mother. I'm sure it all has something to do with this mental illness being hereditary but it isn't entirely clear on that so...It mostly just leaves you lost.
All that being said there is some great stuff here and there. The writing isn't terrible, it's just a mostly boring story, so I believe this guy has some talent as an author. Some of his ideas and use of metaphor, especially when in reference to mental illness, is really beautifully done. There are strokes of genius tossed throughout this book as well as a few instances of actually terrifying scenes.
On top of the really bad cover, it just didn't work for me, in the end. It didn't flow very well, it didn't feel consistent or coherent and I still am not entirely sure just what happened at the end. I don't need everything wrapped up in a neat little bow but SOME answers would be nice. "Daniel Isn't Real" comes out December 6th, 2019...the trailers look great but I can only hope it's a lot better than the book. (Update...the movie sucked too.