Scan barcode
A review by audreychamaine
Those That Wake by Jesse Karp
2.0
Something strange is happening in New York. People go throughout their lives in a mindless state of despair, relying on their electronics to carry them through each day. Teenager Mal has received a strange, frantic message from his estranged brother, but cannot find him. Elsewhere, Laura has been forgotten by her parents and everybody in her life, suddenly a stranger to them. High school teacher Mike finds a door in the basement of his school that leads to a weird place with menacing people, and an agent named Remak shows up to investigate. All four are thrown together under odd, dangerous circumstances, and must work together to find the answers they seek.
Those That Wake was not at all like I thought it would be. It creates a New York City that has been destroyed by an even larger attack than 9/11, one that has destroyed the ability to hope. Despair is written in the pages of this book, like a bad nightmare. There are four main characters, two of whom I’d consider leads. I didn’t really get attached to any of them, though, so I wasn’t motivated to really care too much about what happened. In fact, they got on my nerves after a bit. Laura came across as pretentious, and Mike drove me nuts with his poor attitude.
I think my detachment from the story led to me getting lost in what was actually happening. I’d have to sit back from time to time to try to get my bearings and start paying attention again. I might have been a bit distracted while reading, but can cite some of that distraction as being a result of the book not pulling me in. Toward the end, it felt like a chore to finish.
I did think some of the concepts were interesting, though. Karp makes a statement about how technology and global interests are having a real bearing on our world, and the ways we interact and relate to one another. It’s a pessimistic view, where technology divides rather than unites. All in all, I think this book was a bit too dark for my tastes, because the darkness comes from something that might hit a little too close to home as a possibility for our future.
Those That Wake was not at all like I thought it would be. It creates a New York City that has been destroyed by an even larger attack than 9/11, one that has destroyed the ability to hope. Despair is written in the pages of this book, like a bad nightmare. There are four main characters, two of whom I’d consider leads. I didn’t really get attached to any of them, though, so I wasn’t motivated to really care too much about what happened. In fact, they got on my nerves after a bit. Laura came across as pretentious, and Mike drove me nuts with his poor attitude.
I think my detachment from the story led to me getting lost in what was actually happening. I’d have to sit back from time to time to try to get my bearings and start paying attention again. I might have been a bit distracted while reading, but can cite some of that distraction as being a result of the book not pulling me in. Toward the end, it felt like a chore to finish.
I did think some of the concepts were interesting, though. Karp makes a statement about how technology and global interests are having a real bearing on our world, and the ways we interact and relate to one another. It’s a pessimistic view, where technology divides rather than unites. All in all, I think this book was a bit too dark for my tastes, because the darkness comes from something that might hit a little too close to home as a possibility for our future.