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wordwrought 's review for:
Soon I Will Be Invincible
by Austin Grossman
Update - this was a DNF. Sorry. Not for me.
Disclaimer: I still have a little bit left to go in this book, but I'm pretty sure my frustration isn't going to be resolved based on how much I have left to read.
Maybe I just expected something different when I picked this up. Based on the reviews and the summary, it seemed like this would be a fun, parodic take on superheroes/supervillains. That definitely seems to be what the author has in mind, but there's SO MUCH backstory to EVERY scene and character that it feels like the plot doesn't exist. Even the typical superhero fight scenes (which don't really start to occur until at least halfway through the book) are undercut with dry narration and constant flashbacks. There was finally one plot point about 3/4 of the way through the book that was interesting, and I have yet to read anything else about it or even come across anything that really makes me care about the outcome.
I usually love character background and even the occasional flashback. However, at some point, you'd expect the backstory to fade a little bit so the main plot can take over. That just does not happen in this book (unless it happens in the last 40 or so pages, which I am currently steeling myself to read). Both narrators just constantly describe their pasts or the pasts of the other characters to the point that I stopped caring.
Basically, this feels like a whole novel just introducing character after character and giving their histories. It's possible that's what the author was going for; maybe he wanted to explore the character tropes more than the plot/action tropes. If that sounds interesting to you, you'd probably like this book. It's just very far from what I expected based on everything I knew about the book before I got it.
Disclaimer: I still have a little bit left to go in this book, but I'm pretty sure my frustration isn't going to be resolved based on how much I have left to read.
Maybe I just expected something different when I picked this up. Based on the reviews and the summary, it seemed like this would be a fun, parodic take on superheroes/supervillains. That definitely seems to be what the author has in mind, but there's SO MUCH backstory to EVERY scene and character that it feels like the plot doesn't exist. Even the typical superhero fight scenes (which don't really start to occur until at least halfway through the book) are undercut with dry narration and constant flashbacks. There was finally one plot point about 3/4 of the way through the book that was interesting, and I have yet to read anything else about it or even come across anything that really makes me care about the outcome.
I usually love character background and even the occasional flashback. However, at some point, you'd expect the backstory to fade a little bit so the main plot can take over. That just does not happen in this book (unless it happens in the last 40 or so pages, which I am currently steeling myself to read). Both narrators just constantly describe their pasts or the pasts of the other characters to the point that I stopped caring.
Basically, this feels like a whole novel just introducing character after character and giving their histories. It's possible that's what the author was going for; maybe he wanted to explore the character tropes more than the plot/action tropes. If that sounds interesting to you, you'd probably like this book. It's just very far from what I expected based on everything I knew about the book before I got it.