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phobacloh 's review for:
The Sudden Appearance of Hope
by Claire North
This book...
Was disappointing at the best of times, and annoying at the worst. It didn't invoke any particularly strong feelings of any sort really. It was a vague, and forgettable book - much like it's main character - despite specifically stating that her story would "stay with you forever."
The writing felt like the ramblings of my mother as she tries to explain a simple thing like where she was last Tuesday.
IE it takes her a REALLY LONG TIME to get to the point.
I felt like this novel was a great concept, spoiled by the fact that she didn't have all that much story to tell, so instead she filled in hundreds of pages with useless information that didn't at all pertain to the plot.
In fact, some of the headings of the pages of dot points that she included were:
Not to mention the paragraphs of untitled ramblings of facts and statistics that literally have no pertinence to the story other than to develop her unique and lonely character.
But wait?
Is she ACTUALLY so unique?
Of the about 4 characters she has any actual long term dealings with, three of them go on rants with the exact same formula of spouting irrelevant nonsense in a nigh hysterical manner.
So it's not exactly creative character building, as much as the author had not a lot of story, a lot of random information, and a keyboard.
Other than the needless facts, there is her coping mechanisms which take up about another 3rd of the book. She points out things around her, counts, and constantly titles herself to, I suppose, give herself meaning and purpose.
Here's an excerpt of one of the particularly hard to get through paragraphs:
I'll spare you the rest of the room's description. And that is directly copied punctuation.
She completely leaves out punctuation in many cases- often going from having a conversation with quotation marks, to suddenly not including them and just stating what is said, as if the conversation is happening in her own mind only.
I gave it two stars because when you actually get to the plot, it was alright. It-as well as my dedication to reading the book I spent good money on- kept me reading through to the end, but in the last 100 pages I was pulling at my hair and skimming entire paragraphs just to get to the end.
Because, go figure- the 48 pages before the end 2 could have basically been omitted, as it was just a list of where she travelled and how.
I also felt like the ending invoked no feelings other than relief. It was basically highlighting the pointlessness of the book I just read and rubbing in the fact that I just wasted my time.
Definitely don't get the hype.
Was disappointing at the best of times, and annoying at the worst. It didn't invoke any particularly strong feelings of any sort really. It was a vague, and forgettable book - much like it's main character - despite specifically stating that her story would "stay with you forever."
The writing felt like the ramblings of my mother as she tries to explain a simple thing like where she was last Tuesday.
IE it takes her a REALLY LONG TIME to get to the point.
I felt like this novel was a great concept, spoiled by the fact that she didn't have all that much story to tell, so instead she filled in hundreds of pages with useless information that didn't at all pertain to the plot.
In fact, some of the headings of the pages of dot points that she included were:
* Things I know about Japan contemplated at thirty-five thousand
feet:
* Permissions that the Facebook Messenger app requests
when downloaded to your phone:
* Lines of coding in a machine in ascending order:
* Average monthly wage in:
* GDPs, according to the International Monetary Fund:
* Funds donated to combating the Ebola outbreak 2014-15:
Not to mention the paragraphs of untitled ramblings of facts and statistics that literally have no pertinence to the story other than to develop her unique and lonely character.
But wait?
Is she ACTUALLY so unique?
Of the about 4 characters she has any actual long term dealings with, three of them go on rants with the exact same formula of spouting irrelevant nonsense in a nigh hysterical manner.
So it's not exactly creative character building, as much as the author had not a lot of story, a lot of random information, and a keyboard.
Other than the needless facts, there is her coping mechanisms which take up about another 3rd of the book. She points out things around her, counts, and constantly titles herself to, I suppose, give herself meaning and purpose.
Here's an excerpt of one of the particularly hard to get through paragraphs:
click click
I am knowledge
I am me
the world turns and I am still
Look upwards, and there, anatomy of a ballroom, go!
To the left, on balcony one, photographers and cameras interviewing the select beauties of the 206, a man in there now, a golfer, I think, one wrist folded over the other so you can better see his watch (sponsorship, nothing flashy, and look, you get to tell the time!)
in the middle, balcony two, an acrobat warming up, a string quartet in full swing, twiddley dum twiddly dee, jazz later of course, when they dance, the 206 all know how to dance
to the right...
I'll spare you the rest of the room's description. And that is directly copied punctuation.
She completely leaves out punctuation in many cases- often going from having a conversation with quotation marks, to suddenly not including them and just stating what is said, as if the conversation is happening in her own mind only.
I gave it two stars because when you actually get to the plot, it was alright. It-as well as my dedication to reading the book I spent good money on- kept me reading through to the end, but in the last 100 pages I was pulling at my hair and skimming entire paragraphs just to get to the end.
Because, go figure- the 48 pages before the end 2 could have basically been omitted, as it was just a list of where she travelled and how.
I also felt like the ending invoked no feelings other than relief. It was basically highlighting the pointlessness of the book I just read and rubbing in the fact that I just wasted my time.
Definitely don't get the hype.