kersti

The blue was more interesting than the book

Revisado: 06-05-24

I was quick to pick up this book once I had read the premise, and even more so after reading the reviews. The promise of political intrigue, dystopian society and abig picture questions quickly turns into hunger games meets maze runner meets any other YA-trope. I can survive a well-written YA fantasy trope, as long as they bring something new and interesting to the table. I didn't feel like the plot was interesting enough to make me look past the other flaws.

As a woman into fantasy and sci Fi, you quickly learn to look past any issues of gender just because so many of our best classics seem to either actively dislike women or not know that women exist. We're talking 20th century though. When this book was written, 2014, you'd think there would have been some change by now. But no. There are plenty of instances of this in the book, for example "fridging" the most interesting character, or making sure women, even thousands of years in the future, mainly work as maids, mothers or kitchen appliances.

But my main problem: The author uses the issue of s*xual violence mainly to distinguish which male characters are good (they don't r***) and which are very bad (they do r***). If one doesn't pick up these undertones earlier in the book, it is made painfully clear when a woman is r***d and the main character plainly states that the r***ist did this as a tactical decision against him (the male character). As a plot point, it ends up being a chance for our main character to grow and learn, and spoiler - the r**ist ends up respecting him more for this! Not even at her worst moments is the female characters trauma allowed to be about her.

If you don't care about those things - good for you, feel free to read and probably enjoy this book. I just wish someone, anyone, of the reviewers I read from would have mentioned this aspect of the book and spared me hours of my life.

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Intriguing but lacking

Revisado: 02-11-24

As long as you skip the explicit description of sexual assault against a child + a secondary sexual event for the child, it is an interesting book following an interesting character. The book explores female genius, substance abuse, and loneliness in cool ways. It is weird that the sexual experiences the main character has an adult is no where near as explicitly written as the first she has... Oh, and I didn't mind the narrator, as many others seemed to.

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Ahead of its time, but not mine

Revisado: 01-21-24

Brave New World is an interesting book to read, within the context of when it was written. Huxley is clearly ahead of his time in many ways, and is oddly spot on in terms of how life will be almost 100 years of when the book was written. It is still difficult to see past the obvious sexism and racism that suffuses much of the book, and I felt it got too much when reaching a point where the "good guy" in the book beats a woman while yelling "whore" or "strumpet". This book is a classic and an interesting read. I am glad I did read it, but won't pick it up again any time soon.

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Emotional deep dive into death

Revisado: 01-11-24

I really enjoyed this book, despite its dark themes of death and grief. I enjoyed exploring different aspects of death, challenging our current cultures attitude toward death, and meeting a lot of different people with different views and experiences. Beautifully written, occasionally confusing, but enjoyable none the less. loved!

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Poor writing ruins interesting plot

Revisado: 12-19-23

I had high expectations going into this book because of the many positive reviews and the alluring plot-hook. What made this book difficult to listen through was the poor writing. The way narration and exposition is mixed in between lines of dialogue makes it feel like the characters pause and stare at each other for 1-3 minutes while narration is delivered. It also makes the dialogues difficult to follow when one character answers a question the other character asked 3 paragraphs ago. This book also has some of the mode egregious examples of "tell, don't show" that I have seen (e.g. "That surprised her" instead of having the character say/do something that a surprised person would say/do).

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Interesting plot is lost in uninteresting details

Revisado: 08-31-23

I picked up this book because of the intriguing premise of multiple worlds. I enjoyed the world-building, and I thought the book's ending felt "deserved" and was executed well. The author has moments when her writing reads like poetry, which is nice. These are the positives that kept me listening until the end.

The book has some issues that makes it read like a novel for teenagers, just in the way that the writing feels simple. The writing tends to over-explain a lot in ways that don't contribute to the plot which gets tedious, especially when in a critical moment the plot is paused so that the main character can "mentally explain" to the reader why something is happening, instead of trusting the set up and the reader to understand. The book has some characterization issues, the worst being a pet peeve of mine (stoic, tough/rough men who "gasp" at information). The narrating character's banter with some people just comes off as plain mean.

As I said, in some ways the book is better suited as an introduction to the sci fi genre for teenagers - were it not for the many heavy topics, and occasional extreme violence. If you are an adult or just a person with experience in reading sci fi, i would recommend looking for something more complex.

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It was fine

Revisado: 06-15-23

Totally fine book. Interesting plot developments even if some were kind of predictable. Pretty much none of the characters were likeable though, and for such a long listen, you really need at least one person to root for.

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Cookie cutter whodunit

Revisado: 02-23-23

I went into this book after having read reviews, and looked forward to a clever detective book with many twists and turns. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a very basic whodunit, despite the added layer of a book within a book. I don't think this book was well-written in terms of writing style. For example, the classic saying of "show, don't tell" goes completely ignored here, and the author just goes for "tell, don't show". If you are looking for bland literature that doesn't require too much engagement, this book could be for you. If you want something engaging, something that has actual twists and turns that can't be guessed ahead of time, go for something else.

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Adventure, suspense, mystery, sci fi

Revisado: 11-24-22

I really enjoyed this book. The performances of the narrators were good and compelling, and really gave life to the characters without it feeling like I was listening to radio theatre. i found the story to be compelling as well. Some aspects of it felt a bit "fanfiction"-y considering the main characters being inserted in key moments in modern human history/being the first to realize a scientific discovery, etc, but i didn't mind it at all. I love alternate history stories, and this was an interesting take on the idea of people working in the shadows to move society in a certain direction. i would recommend this book, definitely.

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Fantastic, heart-wrenching book

Revisado: 09-08-22

This book made me feel like shit. i loved it so much. Great story, great performances.

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