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Gaaah. I don't even know how to feel at the end of all this.
I want to like this book, very much. It's charming, in a disgusting, terrifying, bizarre kind of way, with the innocent killers and the gruesome worms and the word play and the landscape that is so incredibly tangible you can almost taste the dust and feel the wind sweeping through the streets.
Seriously, the world that has been created here is fascinating and I crave more information about the inner workings.
But the pacing is atrocious and the characters, while likable after a while, are kept at a considerable distance. I just feel baffled and uncertain at the end of it, like nothing was ever told or explained. The narration style is so isolated and lonely and hard to get into.
If you can stick it out for like, 200 pages, you'll get into some nicely rewarding text, but the first 200 pages are almost dreary, where the only curiosity is "What nasty thing will we uncover next?" Slow burn tales can be delightful, but I feel like every tidbit of intrigue and discovery was held tantalizingly out of reach by an author who didn't want to give up any secrets whatsoever. Many readers are likely to get tired of reaching for those morsels and give up. The ending is beautiful, but the bulk leading up to it is disjointed.
As dystopians go, I'm very, very torn. I feel like I might have gotten more out of this if I were a parent, with the conflicts of raising someone and seeing them grow and change as they learn and become human.
If I had to guess, I bet Station Eleven fans would enjoy this one. If they can deal with a giant flying bear and a whole lot of tentacles, of course.
(It took me until about page 273 of 323 to realize that Mord is a [intentional?] reference to Mor'du, the Scottish bear, but Google is only giving me Disney references so it's hard to tell what the actual legend is.)
(Furthermore, I realize this isn't the case AT ALL, but Borne very much reminded me of Koro Sensei from Assassination Classroom, which made him even more likable.)
(Further furthermore, I like Wick's mad scientist gray hair wisping around his face. It's super cute.)
I want to like this book, very much. It's charming, in a disgusting, terrifying, bizarre kind of way, with the innocent killers and the gruesome worms and the word play and the landscape that is so incredibly tangible you can almost taste the dust and feel the wind sweeping through the streets.
Seriously, the world that has been created here is fascinating and I crave more information about the inner workings.
But the pacing is atrocious and the characters, while likable after a while, are kept at a considerable distance. I just feel baffled and uncertain at the end of it, like nothing was ever told or explained. The narration style is so isolated and lonely and hard to get into.
If you can stick it out for like, 200 pages, you'll get into some nicely rewarding text, but the first 200 pages are almost dreary, where the only curiosity is "What nasty thing will we uncover next?" Slow burn tales can be delightful, but I feel like every tidbit of intrigue and discovery was held tantalizingly out of reach by an author who didn't want to give up any secrets whatsoever. Many readers are likely to get tired of reaching for those morsels and give up. The ending is beautiful, but the bulk leading up to it is disjointed.
As dystopians go, I'm very, very torn. I feel like I might have gotten more out of this if I were a parent, with the conflicts of raising someone and seeing them grow and change as they learn and become human.
If I had to guess, I bet Station Eleven fans would enjoy this one. If they can deal with a giant flying bear and a whole lot of tentacles, of course.
(It took me until about page 273 of 323 to realize that Mord is a [intentional?] reference to Mor'du, the Scottish bear, but Google is only giving me Disney references so it's hard to tell what the actual legend is.)
(Furthermore, I realize this isn't the case AT ALL, but Borne very much reminded me of Koro Sensei from Assassination Classroom, which made him even more likable.)
(Further furthermore, I like Wick's mad scientist gray hair wisping around his face. It's super cute.)