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

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The characters honestly drove me nuts. It's a story about exploration and yet the in-curiosity of the main character (and many of the main characters around them) was just overwhelmingly annoying to me. I know that's part of the plot but it was just unjustifiable. Also, only the (few) female characters had a real humanity to them and one of them got called "hysterical" for being justly angry, so I found that pretty alienating too. Maybe you'll find it less annoying, but I dragged myself through the 17 hours. Some cool world-building and writing but the juice was not worth the squeeze for me.