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A review by vern_pk
The Man from Primrose Lane by James Renner
4.0
I'm giving this book three stars, only because there is no "half star" option on the rating function. Really, my rating is 3.5 stars.
I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that the book's greatest strength is its defiance of genre. It blends sci-fi, romance, drama, mystery, crime, supernatural, and probably a bunch of others, and it does it in such a way that you don't even see it coming. I love stories that defy genre stereotypes, particularly ones that have shifting narratives/perspectives. The author here does a tremendous job with that, and that is probably the aspect of the book I liked the most.
That being said, the characters are absolutely HORRID: just bizarre, self-involved, unsympathetic (and not even in an interesting, conflicted way), unbelievable people. It's such a shame that such an amazing, complex story happened to such inane, boring characters.
The author was a little heavy-handed with the foreshadowing as well; while the first 100 pages left me totally enthralled and wondering just what the hell was going on, once I wrapped my mind around the idea, I figured out pretty quickly the twist, the culprit, the Man's identity, etc. It got to the point where I had 150 pages left in the book and was wondering when the hell we were going to just get ON with it already.
The ending was resolved a little too quickly and sloppily, as well, although I absolutely loved the "Beeble" angle to the story.
In sum, a fascinating reading experience for those with an open mind, but it will be hard to care about the people involved, and the ending might seem a little unsatisfactory.
I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that the book's greatest strength is its defiance of genre. It blends sci-fi, romance, drama, mystery, crime, supernatural, and probably a bunch of others, and it does it in such a way that you don't even see it coming. I love stories that defy genre stereotypes, particularly ones that have shifting narratives/perspectives. The author here does a tremendous job with that, and that is probably the aspect of the book I liked the most.
That being said, the characters are absolutely HORRID: just bizarre, self-involved, unsympathetic (and not even in an interesting, conflicted way), unbelievable people. It's such a shame that such an amazing, complex story happened to such inane, boring characters.
The author was a little heavy-handed with the foreshadowing as well; while the first 100 pages left me totally enthralled and wondering just what the hell was going on, once I wrapped my mind around the idea, I figured out pretty quickly the twist, the culprit, the Man's identity, etc. It got to the point where I had 150 pages left in the book and was wondering when the hell we were going to just get ON with it already.
The ending was resolved a little too quickly and sloppily, as well, although I absolutely loved the "Beeble" angle to the story.
In sum, a fascinating reading experience for those with an open mind, but it will be hard to care about the people involved, and the ending might seem a little unsatisfactory.