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A review by gulshanbatra
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
5.0
Reading Spoonbenders is a pleasant and ultimately quite satisfying experience, not very different from visiting a distant cousin’s family that you are enamored enough to want to know more about and then one day, when you get to know them more, you wonder why it took you so long(!) to do so!
The Telemachuses are an obtuse family, like all families, and even though individually they are immensely likable, their actions and interactions don’t always give off that feeling. But isn’t that how family is? You don’t quite get to choose family, or select which ones of your cousins and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces you’d want to keep!
Almost all the characters in the story are extremely readable, and the way the storylines progress you can’t help but relate to all of them. There are gaps in understanding towards the beginning, but soon enough you don’t even realize the gaps and the pacing surely helps.
The overall plot hints at some mystery or larger story arc, and though the denouement is satisfying, don’t expect a thunderstorm for the climax.
The author has a very warm and interesting writing style, one that gets you real close and personal to all the characters. I wasn’t expecting how invested I’d become in the storylines but by the time I finished the book, I was sorry to realize the story had ended. The sheer rawness of some of the emotions, especially those of the World’s Most Powerful Psychic, are disarmingly charming and I was amazed to be in their shoes - imagine, if you could see and know everything, what all could you do!! Or could you? Would you? What would you really do? Is future a given? Who does it belong to? Are those who see the future destined to repeat it exactly as they see it? Can they change what they know their future to be? And if you can’t really see your future, should or could that stop you from imagining or dreaming?
Along the way, the book raises and addresses such interesting and unique perspectives and to me that’s part of what makes the book really powerful and unique.
Some of the best scenes in the book are when there are a lot of characters together and they talk fast, often in short bursts or sentences, as if they are thinking too fast to speak all of what they’re thinking, but really they mean all of that. Some of the rapid fire dialog is outright funny, and here again I was surprised to find the writing so endearing, genuine and sincere that I breezed through much faster and easier than expected.
A solid 5-star.
The Telemachuses are an obtuse family, like all families, and even though individually they are immensely likable, their actions and interactions don’t always give off that feeling. But isn’t that how family is? You don’t quite get to choose family, or select which ones of your cousins and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces you’d want to keep!
Almost all the characters in the story are extremely readable, and the way the storylines progress you can’t help but relate to all of them. There are gaps in understanding towards the beginning, but soon enough you don’t even realize the gaps and the pacing surely helps.
The overall plot hints at some mystery or larger story arc, and though the denouement is satisfying, don’t expect a thunderstorm for the climax.
The author has a very warm and interesting writing style, one that gets you real close and personal to all the characters. I wasn’t expecting how invested I’d become in the storylines but by the time I finished the book, I was sorry to realize the story had ended. The sheer rawness of some of the emotions, especially those of the World’s Most Powerful Psychic, are disarmingly charming and I was amazed to be in their shoes - imagine, if you could see and know everything, what all could you do!! Or could you? Would you? What would you really do? Is future a given? Who does it belong to? Are those who see the future destined to repeat it exactly as they see it? Can they change what they know their future to be? And if you can’t really see your future, should or could that stop you from imagining or dreaming?
Along the way, the book raises and addresses such interesting and unique perspectives and to me that’s part of what makes the book really powerful and unique.
Some of the best scenes in the book are when there are a lot of characters together and they talk fast, often in short bursts or sentences, as if they are thinking too fast to speak all of what they’re thinking, but really they mean all of that. Some of the rapid fire dialog is outright funny, and here again I was surprised to find the writing so endearing, genuine and sincere that I breezed through much faster and easier than expected.
A solid 5-star.