A review by alayoob313
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

1.0

I received this book from the publisher as a winner of a Goodreads contest in exchange for an honest review. This review contains some spoilers. I have to say I had such high hopes for this book but unfortunately it was highly disappointing. To start the characters were bland with no complexity, character development just never seemed to happen throughout the book. The protagonist appeared single dimensioned and self absorbed although he is supposedly a missionary - he leaves his wife to complete a mission and when she is in need and pregnant he loses all connection to her and disengages. His wife appears whiney and is presented in a light that does little to allow you to feel empathy for her despite the fact that her world is falling apart and her self absorbed supposedly humanitarian husband has abandoned her both physically and emotionally. Little is also done to develop the USIC employees, Oasans, and Oasis itself. For 500 pages I felt like I just kept waiting for something to happen and in the end you are just left hanging wondering why I devoted the time to read the book in its entirety. The only thing that kept me reading it in its entirety was hope, stubborness, and the fact that the prose is well written and easily readable. For me in the end the only character and aspect of the book I felt any connection or emotion to was the cat Joshua, who of course is tortured and dies evoking me to dislike the book more and want to throw it straight in the garbage. Sorry to say this as I don't like to write negative reviews and am someone who can find the silver lining in almost every cloud, but save yourself the waste of time in reading this book.