Helpful Score: 3
I was truly surprised, after reading a lot of the Goodreads reviews, by how extreme the reactions to this book have been. It is, apparently, way more polarizing than I'd realized, with people tending to either totally hate it or fervently love it.
I am most decidedly amongst the latter. What starts out feeling like an ideal casual beach read grows into a uniquely compelling study of our expectations of information and/or the lack thereof. Ironically, the recurring complaint amongst its detractors seems to be rooted in their own expectations of it.
Was it originally marketed as a high-suspense thriller? It seems many readers approached it believing it would be just that and, while it could technically fit that criteria, it quickly becomes clear that there is much, much more afoot.
I'm not going to dive any further into this as it's undoubtedly best for potential readers to come to it as free from expectations as possible. I'll just reiterate that I really loved it and found the slow reveal of its actual intent to be nothing short of masterful. Can't wait to inhale his (thus far) two other novels.
I am most decidedly amongst the latter. What starts out feeling like an ideal casual beach read grows into a uniquely compelling study of our expectations of information and/or the lack thereof. Ironically, the recurring complaint amongst its detractors seems to be rooted in their own expectations of it.
Was it originally marketed as a high-suspense thriller? It seems many readers approached it believing it would be just that and, while it could technically fit that criteria, it quickly becomes clear that there is much, much more afoot.
I'm not going to dive any further into this as it's undoubtedly best for potential readers to come to it as free from expectations as possible. I'll just reiterate that I really loved it and found the slow reveal of its actual intent to be nothing short of masterful. Can't wait to inhale his (thus far) two other novels.
Helpful Score: 1
A very interesting story for a small space. It still includes nice recalls about life.
All I can say is, "Wow". I really hated this book. I was initially excited to dive into it because the premise was a good one. But this author hasn't met a description he doesn't like. If he could say it in two words, he used ten! I have never seen such wordiness in descriptions of things before and hope to never again! I should've used my 50 page rule, and that was my mistake. 137 pages in and I just couldn't any more. And, no 40 yo woman thinks about sex as often as the author portrays our main character! And I was a 40 yo woman at one time! Geesh! Do yourself a favor and pass on this word salad of a book!
