A review by horchata
Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

By about 30% into the audiobook, I found myself looking forward to my commute because I wanted to know what was going to happen next to Adam and Rao; Adam’s childhood was morbidly intriguing to me, and I was eager to discover what was behind Rao’s self-destructive behavioral patterns. I ended up peeking at the beginning of a review to confirm the slow-burn vibes I was picking up on were actually there, and they were! But lordy, I wanted more from the book. I think for me the meat was missing right about the time when things needed to start mattering in the middle. We got to see a bunch of horrorterror manifestations of people getting caught in brain-melting, body-melding nostalgia loops, but the why of it all didn’t ever hit home for me the way I wished. I found myself wanting the authors to commit to the underbelly of whatever they were building; showing more of that chilling, ruthless intelligence and their plans to discard our characters like used tissues, or sinking into the idea of Prophet as some kind of mindless airborne nostalgia prion disease. Because it was kind of a dip of the fingers along the surface rather than a full plunge, I was checked out in the last quarter, and the ending felt (to me) rushed, for what it was.
I almost wished we’d had a longer period of doubt, or a more sinister interpretation of Rao’s return, or a longer dwelling on Adam’s grief and how it was his undoing. The untouchable, unflappable stoicism from Rao’s getting completely subsumed by Prophet was a bit of a let down! I was really hoping to see Adam get cracked open by the tragedy a little. I think if you’re going to tease at a romance that apparently remakes reality, you might as well have both people in the relationship visibly go all-in. Also seeing a review here that this was just Arthur/Eames with the serial numbers filed off actually lessens my enjoyment of the book, lmao. It did read a little like it was written by someone who’d graduated from the fanfic mines, but in a sophisticated way rather than an “oh that explains it” way (although it does explain some of it a little I think).
Anyway, I did finish it, and I could roll easily along with the premise, and the narrators of the audiobook enhanced my experience quite a bit. I wouldn’t ever re-read the book but I would request it at Yuletide.
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