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A review by boezaaah
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
3.0
“Whenever I saw the sun, I reminded myself that I was looking at a star. One of over a hundred billion in our galaxy. A galaxy that was just one of billions of other galaxies in the observable universe. This helped me keep things in perspective.”
I truly don't think I've ever read a bad review about this book. Since it's been released, it's been endlessly praised and hyped, so naturally, I was extremely excited to read it... and it disappointed me. I'm SO upset that I didn't like this. I picked it up so I could watch the movie and now I don't even want to watch the movie. The only reason this got 3 stars is because of the last 100 pages, but other than that, it's probably closer to a 2 star read for me.
I'm not exactly sure why I thought I would enjoy this, considering it's a science fiction novel, and I don't like science fiction, but I had hope. Well... false hope. Firstly, pop culture in books for me personally is a huge turn off, and literally all this book is, is one huge pop culture reference. God. It drove me nuts. A lot of the references went straight over my head and it made me feel STUPID. I can definitely understand why someone who loves science fiction and pop culture in books would LOVE this book. But 2 things which I don't like... being put together... it just doesn't work.
I had absolutely no attachment to any of the characters. At best, they annoyed me. At worst, I put the book down for almost a month. I didn't feel as though the characters were well developed, and our main character Wade had ZERO depth. He didn't have a VOICE. It's so hard to read from the point of view of a character who has no personality. I think the only character who I liked was Aech, and that was because they actually HAD some sort of personality.
The concept of this book is fantastic, and I definitely think it would work better on the big screen compared to being written as a novel. Something about trying to read the descriptions of everything made me want to cry out of frustration. I DON'T WANT TO READ AN ENTIRE PAGE ABOUT HOW YOU SET UP YOUR COMPUTER! Some things are better shown than told, and that phrase definitely applies to the world building in this book. I would have loved to have seen the world. Not read about it. It just dragged on way too much.
Now, despite my rather negative review, I didn't hate this book (I know... what?). Even though I felt it lacked action and character development and everything else I love about fiction, I did enjoy some parts of it, but I quickly got distracted every time I was reading because I wasn't at all engaged in the story. When the sequel comes out, I won't be picking it up (unless I find it in a thrift store in perfect condition for less than $4).
In saying all of that negative stuff, and realising I really don't have anything good to say about this book, I do recommend it. It's just not what I was looking for.
I truly don't think I've ever read a bad review about this book. Since it's been released, it's been endlessly praised and hyped, so naturally, I was extremely excited to read it... and it disappointed me. I'm SO upset that I didn't like this. I picked it up so I could watch the movie and now I don't even want to watch the movie. The only reason this got 3 stars is because of the last 100 pages, but other than that, it's probably closer to a 2 star read for me.
I'm not exactly sure why I thought I would enjoy this, considering it's a science fiction novel, and I don't like science fiction, but I had hope. Well... false hope. Firstly, pop culture in books for me personally is a huge turn off, and literally all this book is, is one huge pop culture reference. God. It drove me nuts. A lot of the references went straight over my head and it made me feel STUPID. I can definitely understand why someone who loves science fiction and pop culture in books would LOVE this book. But 2 things which I don't like... being put together... it just doesn't work.
I had absolutely no attachment to any of the characters. At best, they annoyed me. At worst, I put the book down for almost a month. I didn't feel as though the characters were well developed, and our main character Wade had ZERO depth. He didn't have a VOICE. It's so hard to read from the point of view of a character who has no personality. I think the only character who I liked was Aech, and that was because they actually HAD some sort of personality.
The concept of this book is fantastic, and I definitely think it would work better on the big screen compared to being written as a novel. Something about trying to read the descriptions of everything made me want to cry out of frustration. I DON'T WANT TO READ AN ENTIRE PAGE ABOUT HOW YOU SET UP YOUR COMPUTER! Some things are better shown than told, and that phrase definitely applies to the world building in this book. I would have loved to have seen the world. Not read about it. It just dragged on way too much.
Now, despite my rather negative review, I didn't hate this book (I know... what?). Even though I felt it lacked action and character development and everything else I love about fiction, I did enjoy some parts of it, but I quickly got distracted every time I was reading because I wasn't at all engaged in the story. When the sequel comes out, I won't be picking it up (unless I find it in a thrift store in perfect condition for less than $4).
In saying all of that negative stuff, and realising I really don't have anything good to say about this book, I do recommend it. It's just not what I was looking for.