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adamcetra's reviews
128 reviews
Perfect Little Children by Sophie Hannah
2.0
Oh wow. The plot of this book is so laughably dumb, I don't know how I got through it. The story begins with an interesting question: what is up with these two kids? They haven't aged in 12 years! The answer is literally the most boring and predictable one it could be: they're two different kids! (Of course, more to it than that, but none of it makes it interesting.)
The plot barely progresses throughout the story, with most of the time spent with Beth's ridiculous, repetitive speculating. Nothing she does makes sense, as throughout 90 percent of the book, it looks like she's just ruining the life of someone who doesn't like her anymore based on a weird hunch. But of course, that ridiculous hunch turns out to be EXACTLY CORRECT!
There is also almost an entire chapter about searching for Twitter accounts. Another is spent on what is basically the embodiment of the "everybody clapped" meme.* In this totally unnecessary subplot, Beth rescues her daughter (the lone bright spot in this book, btw, Zannah is hilarious!), and her boyfriend from a teacher who makes a racist comment and lies about it. Zannah had recorded it on her phone, which the teacher took (to delete the recording), but Zannah emailed the video to Beth, who outsmarts the teacher and principal (?) after the teacher lies. The entire scene is cringeworthy. It's only arguable purpose is to foreshadow ... Beth recording something on her phone! On that note, who points a gun at someone seated, threatens to kill them, provides a COMPLETE confession, and never thinks to ask for the other person's cell phone?!?
If you want a laugh, give this book a try. Otherwise, skip it for one of the million other (better) versions of this kind of story.
*For those that don't know, the meme evolved from people telling clearly fake stories on the internet about them really showing somebody up, standing up for themself or someone else, etc. Many versions ended with everyone in line at the store or whatever clapping. So "everybody clapped," is a reference to these laughably fake stories about the narrator acting "perfectly" and winning in the end, and being recognized for their victory by everyone in the area clapping.
The plot barely progresses throughout the story, with most of the time spent with Beth's ridiculous, repetitive speculating. Nothing she does makes sense, as throughout 90 percent of the book, it looks like she's just ruining the life of someone who doesn't like her anymore based on a weird hunch. But of course, that ridiculous hunch turns out to be EXACTLY CORRECT!
There is also almost an entire chapter about searching for Twitter accounts. Another is spent on what is basically the embodiment of the "everybody clapped" meme.* In this totally unnecessary subplot, Beth rescues her daughter (the lone bright spot in this book, btw, Zannah is hilarious!), and her boyfriend from a teacher who makes a racist comment and lies about it. Zannah had recorded it on her phone, which the teacher took (to delete the recording), but Zannah emailed the video to Beth, who outsmarts the teacher and principal (?) after the teacher lies. The entire scene is cringeworthy. It's only arguable purpose is to foreshadow ... Beth recording something on her phone! On that note, who points a gun at someone seated, threatens to kill them, provides a COMPLETE confession, and never thinks to ask for the other person's cell phone?!?
If you want a laugh, give this book a try. Otherwise, skip it for one of the million other (better) versions of this kind of story.
*For those that don't know, the meme evolved from people telling clearly fake stories on the internet about them really showing somebody up, standing up for themself or someone else, etc. Many versions ended with everyone in line at the store or whatever clapping. So "everybody clapped," is a reference to these laughably fake stories about the narrator acting "perfectly" and winning in the end, and being recognized for their victory by everyone in the area clapping.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
2.0
Read this a while ago, so this won't be too detailed. Every sentence follows the same syntax. (Not a direct quote, but something like "He wanted to say it, thought he should say it, couldn't say it." Seriously. It's so repetitive.). Also, I don't understand the choice of taking a real life, dangerous and often deadly journey that real, desperate people have to take, and fictionalizing it to be as easy as walking through a door. My last point: this book is all TELL and little SHOW. For example, we're often told about conversations that happen instead of letting us hear them. It's an unnecessary shortcut that contributes to the distance I felt from the characters, when I should have (and really wanted to) empathize with them. Spend your time reading Our Women on the Ground instead.
Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven
5.0
*Very mild, not-quite spoilers*
This book is a knockout. The story is super engrossing and every chapter hits, especially the later ones about the "warthogs." I highly recommend listening on audio. The voice-acting is top notch and gives the story a true documentary feel. The end of the "war" (mentioned early so not a spoiler haha) is a little anti-climactic due to the chosen POV character, but the surrounding chapters more than make up for it.
This book is a knockout. The story is super engrossing and every chapter hits, especially the later ones about the "warthogs." I highly recommend listening on audio. The voice-acting is top notch and gives the story a true documentary feel. The end of the "war" (mentioned early so not a spoiler haha) is a little anti-climactic due to the chosen POV character, but the surrounding chapters more than make up for it.
The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene
3.0
Thank you to Edelweiis and the publisher for providing an eGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Quick review: Google the oral history of the dinner party episode. If you like that article, you will like this book. On the other hand, you can pretty much read any of the book's big revelations in subsequent articles if you follow, for example, Uproxx on Facebook.
Full review: Let me preface by saying that I'm the kind of person that has watched The Office beginning to end countless times. If I don't know what to watch, I put it on. If I'm cleaning, etc, it's on. So this book was made for someone like me, which is why this turned into sort of a rant. Not sorry lol.
Overall, this is definitely a worthwhile and fun read. I learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know, and seeing the behind the scenes stuff was incredibly interesting. Although some things are just conjecture presented as fact (ex: Steve Carrell wanting to stay past season 7. It's just a bald claim made by someone tangentially involved, not, say, Steve Carrell himself.) The best parts of this book are those that just progress through the making of a season.
On the other hand, I don't like that it's mostly cobbled together from past interviews. For example, a guy like Brian Baumgartner flat out said he would've been available, but Greene seemingly didn't bother interviewing him and just used old quotes, apparently without extending the courtesy of asking if it was okay. It makes the whole thing feel a little ... disingenuous?
Greene also definitely spends a lot of time on some boring subjects. However, a big issue for me had to be the editorializing and sometimes, downright bashing. If I'm picking up this book, I'm almost definitely a super fan. I don't want to be told by the author, who rarely jumps in to comment and styles himself as simply a presenter of information, that entire seasons, relationships, characters, plotlines, etc., "don't work." Anyone who is actually tuned into the fandom knows that none of those are "majority" views. And I didn't like being told that ALL of these things didn't work, when you would be hard pressed to find an actual fan who agrees with more than a couple of characters, plotlines, etc, on this book's extensive list of things that don't work.*
On that note, I bring you the worst part of this book: Miles Freaking McNutt. McNutt is one of the worst TV reviewers out there. I had no idea who he was before this book, and I am, frankly, baffled by his inclusion. He writes for The AV Club (which I otherwise LOVE). Of course, I looked him up after reading this book, and I realized that he wrote a laughably terribly positive review of the Game of Thrones finale for The AV Club that I had read before (where he calls himself an "expert," as he did with all of his GOT reviews to differentiate from their non-book reader reviews). He's presented as only liking the second season of The Office, and I feel like he only pops in to support the author's editorializing that certain plotlines, characters, etc, don't work. His comments are included only a handful of times, but they're so awful, I literally took an entire star off of this review because of him.
*It's also funny to me personally that, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Niagara episodes, which for me are the worst episodes of the series, only saved by Michael/Dwight shenanigans, are presented as being the greatest. (Yes, I recognize that is a minority view haha.) And that the author doesn't seem to recognize the "unreality" and plotholes of those episodes (ex: the coworkers that Pam basically didn't want at the wedding at all an episode ago literally taking it over, while dancing to freaking Chris Brown), which is a missed opportunity to juxtapose with other quotes in the book regarding the show's rules about preserving its realism.
Quick review: Google the oral history of the dinner party episode. If you like that article, you will like this book. On the other hand, you can pretty much read any of the book's big revelations in subsequent articles if you follow, for example, Uproxx on Facebook.
Full review: Let me preface by saying that I'm the kind of person that has watched The Office beginning to end countless times. If I don't know what to watch, I put it on. If I'm cleaning, etc, it's on. So this book was made for someone like me, which is why this turned into sort of a rant. Not sorry lol.
Overall, this is definitely a worthwhile and fun read. I learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know, and seeing the behind the scenes stuff was incredibly interesting. Although some things are just conjecture presented as fact (ex: Steve Carrell wanting to stay past season 7. It's just a bald claim made by someone tangentially involved, not, say, Steve Carrell himself.) The best parts of this book are those that just progress through the making of a season.
On the other hand, I don't like that it's mostly cobbled together from past interviews. For example, a guy like Brian Baumgartner flat out said he would've been available, but Greene seemingly didn't bother interviewing him and just used old quotes, apparently without extending the courtesy of asking if it was okay. It makes the whole thing feel a little ... disingenuous?
Greene also definitely spends a lot of time on some boring subjects. However, a big issue for me had to be the editorializing and sometimes, downright bashing. If I'm picking up this book, I'm almost definitely a super fan. I don't want to be told by the author, who rarely jumps in to comment and styles himself as simply a presenter of information, that entire seasons, relationships, characters, plotlines, etc., "don't work." Anyone who is actually tuned into the fandom knows that none of those are "majority" views. And I didn't like being told that ALL of these things didn't work, when you would be hard pressed to find an actual fan who agrees with more than a couple of characters, plotlines, etc, on this book's extensive list of things that don't work.*
On that note, I bring you the worst part of this book: Miles Freaking McNutt. McNutt is one of the worst TV reviewers out there. I had no idea who he was before this book, and I am, frankly, baffled by his inclusion. He writes for The AV Club (which I otherwise LOVE). Of course, I looked him up after reading this book, and I realized that he wrote a laughably terribly positive review of the Game of Thrones finale for The AV Club that I had read before (where he calls himself an "expert," as he did with all of his GOT reviews to differentiate from their non-book reader reviews). He's presented as only liking the second season of The Office, and I feel like he only pops in to support the author's editorializing that certain plotlines, characters, etc, don't work. His comments are included only a handful of times, but they're so awful, I literally took an entire star off of this review because of him.
*It's also funny to me personally that, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Niagara episodes, which for me are the worst episodes of the series, only saved by Michael/Dwight shenanigans, are presented as being the greatest. (Yes, I recognize that is a minority view haha.) And that the author doesn't seem to recognize the "unreality" and plotholes of those episodes (ex: the coworkers that Pam basically didn't want at the wedding at all an episode ago literally taking it over, while dancing to freaking Chris Brown), which is a missed opportunity to juxtapose with other quotes in the book regarding the show's rules about preserving its realism.