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A review by pagesplotsandpints
Paradox Bound by Peter Clines
2.5
Read Completed 11/16/23 | 2.5 stars, but rounding up because it was disappointing but not bad
PARADOX BOUND was a (very) watered down AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman with a little time travel. The AMERICAN GODS vibes were the only things holding my attention and I kept hoping for some plot development, but we really didn't get it.
The premise of the book is that Eli meets a mysterious woman, and he encounters her multiple times from when he's a child to his current adult age. She looks like she's from the past, driving an old car, but there's something else about her. Long story short, Eli joins Harry (short for Harriet) on her quest to find & protect the American Dream (because it's a real, tangible thing) and they can slip through time based on certain points in the country where the timelines grow stagnant and blur.
So the actualization of the American Dream becoming a real item gave me those AG feels (and it was given to the Founding Fathers by an Egyptian god, which sadly we only really hear in passing and don't get to know much about), and there's a sinister force of Faceless Men chasing after the good guys. I just.... I WANTED to like this. It's a neat concept, unique, different from other time travel books and a fun spin on a historical tie. I just never could get into it, mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was reading. The world-building and plot were minimal. There were a lot of things I had to take at face value because we were told but didn't really get to learn about in detail. I don't know why things happened, how they happened, and why everything was so important.
Eli was a good enough character, and as always, Ray Porter did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook to bring him to life. If I hadn't been listening to the audio, I don't know if I would have stuck with this book for very long. Harry was just fine. She was all special snowflake and I don't know... some things about her just screamed character and not real person (yes, she IS a character but I want to feel lost in the story).
Really, the plot just didn't do it for me and I didn't feel like it was developed enough. Very cool concept, some people really loved it, but this fell pretty flat for me.
PARADOX BOUND was a (very) watered down AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman with a little time travel. The AMERICAN GODS vibes were the only things holding my attention and I kept hoping for some plot development, but we really didn't get it.
The premise of the book is that Eli meets a mysterious woman, and he encounters her multiple times from when he's a child to his current adult age. She looks like she's from the past, driving an old car, but there's something else about her. Long story short, Eli joins Harry (short for Harriet) on her quest to find & protect the American Dream (because it's a real, tangible thing) and they can slip through time based on certain points in the country where the timelines grow stagnant and blur.
So the actualization of the American Dream becoming a real item gave me those AG feels (and it was given to the Founding Fathers by an Egyptian god, which sadly we only really hear in passing and don't get to know much about), and there's a sinister force of Faceless Men chasing after the good guys. I just.... I WANTED to like this. It's a neat concept, unique, different from other time travel books and a fun spin on a historical tie. I just never could get into it, mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was reading. The world-building and plot were minimal. There were a lot of things I had to take at face value because we were told but didn't really get to learn about in detail. I don't know why things happened, how they happened, and why everything was so important.
Eli was a good enough character, and as always, Ray Porter did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook to bring him to life. If I hadn't been listening to the audio, I don't know if I would have stuck with this book for very long. Harry was just fine. She was all special snowflake and I don't know... some things about her just screamed character and not real person (yes, she IS a character but I want to feel lost in the story).
Really, the plot just didn't do it for me and I didn't feel like it was developed enough. Very cool concept, some people really loved it, but this fell pretty flat for me.