An enjoyable YA sort-of-fantasy, sort-of-romance book that doesn't really focus on either genre as much as it focuses on its likable lead3.5ish stars.
An enjoyable YA sort-of-fantasy, sort-of-romance book that doesn't really focus on either genre as much as it focuses on its likable lead characters and the cool water horses used to race in the titular Scorpio Races. It's also just very classy; it's definitely a YA novel, but it avoids being immature. YA fantasy/romance is not my preferred genre for which reason I tend not to read much of it, and I don't expect this to make a particularly lasting effect on me, but this made for a very pleasant roadtrip audiobook with some great narration performances by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham.
What begins as a sort-of-cute "sick girl meets cute boy" cliche quickly devolves into repugnantly saccharine ridiculousness and eventual1.5ish stars.
What begins as a sort-of-cute "sick girl meets cute boy" cliche quickly devolves into repugnantly saccharine ridiculousness and eventually cheap, ludicrous melodrama.
I'll say this much: it was never very good. It was okay. If the premise reminds you of The Fault in Our Stars, your thoughts are justified. Despite this, it tries so hard to distinguish itself, to be unique that it's impossible not to be aware of how hard it's trying.
And it's unnecessary. The story is honestly at its best when it follows the classic formula. Olly's and Maddy's young love is actually pretty adorable. Their silly, flirty emails and instant messages take me back to high school when I thought I was in love for the first time. Of course, then Maddy takes it to the next level and decides it's worth it to (view spoiler)[die as long as she can go to Hawaii first (hide spoiler)]. It's not plausible and it's not romantic.
Then it starts to get bad. Tawdry, manipulative, imbecilic bad. I won't say more, I'll just say it sinks to a place I wouldn't have thought it classless enough to sink to. There's a fine line between "unique" and "laying it on so thick it's suffocating."
Pretty standard suspense thriller fare with some interesting character work and an engaging central premise.
Listening on audio on our road3ish stars.
Pretty standard suspense thriller fare with some interesting character work and an engaging central premise.
Listening on audio on our roadtrip to Lake Tahoe was a little difficult, not because the voice actors didn't do a great job but because there are approximately 7945 different POVs. Even 85% of the way through the book I kept asking my wife "wait who's so-and-so again?" There's just a lot going on. Hawkins seems to do a pretty good job of psychologically examining some of her characters. Even the dead woman whose death is the basis for the novel is pretty nuanced. I liked learning about the different familial and romantic relationships between the different characters. But with so many of them, Hawkins only gets a chance to delve into three or four of the them and the rest are just kind of there, which is one of the reasons it's hard to keep track of who's who.
The "drowning pool," which serves as the premise of the novel because several, sometimes mysterious, deaths have occurred there throughout history and whose victims are being obsessively investigated and cataloged by Nelle who meets her demise at the onset of the novel, is really interesting. Again, though, it's difficult to remember which of the names being thrown around are women who have died there and why the brief flashbacks of each of them are relevant.
And then there are just so many things that are never explained. It ends and my initial impression is, "wait, but what about such-and-such?" I get that red herrings are thrown in, and some things are deliberately left murky, but the fact that I'm confused about whether they were intentional is just poor editing in my opinion.
I respect that Hawkins released this so quickly after her insanely hyped international hit, The Girl on the Train. I feel like many authors who have critically acclaimed bestsellers don't follow them up (sometimes ever), perhaps for fear of not living up to their reputations? Personally I liked this better than GotT and will probably read more of this author in the future....more
As a dog owner (I have a 10-month-old Goldendoodle named Fritz, short for Fritzgerald, yes the extra 'r' is intentional) and lover, I enjo2ish stars.
As a dog owner (I have a 10-month-old Goldendoodle named Fritz, short for Fritzgerald, yes the extra 'r' is intentional) and lover, I enjoyed this book and found it somewhat heartwarming. As a book lover I recognize this book as cute but insubstantial and ultimately more cloying than inspirational. It's easy-to-read fluff that fulfilled its purpose as something to listen to on a road trip to Southern Utah and appease my wife.
Thoughts I had while listening: Dogs can be really annoying; most dog owners are awful people; I really want to train Fritz to be a search and rescue dog; I want to teach Fritz how to open a door with his mouth; I don't know if I have the patience to train a puppy again; I want to adopt a senior dog.
Yes, I cried. But not really because of an emotional response. I cried fully conscious that I was being emotionally manipulated. I cried and rolled my eyes simultaneously.
Now just to brag, these are the tricks (spells) that Fritz knows: Avada Kedavra (play dead), Expelliarmus (drop it), Wingardium Leviosa (up on two legs), Confundo (spin in a circle), Accio (fetch)....more
I had my doubts. This was a mind-blowingly popular book. I dislike reading those types of books on principle. I probably would not have rea3ish stars.
I had my doubts. This was a mind-blowingly popular book. I dislike reading those types of books on principle. I probably would not have read this book in any other circumstance... my wife and I were going on a road trip to Yellowstone and I suggested we listen to an audiobook on the drive to and from. She's not necessarily as avid a reader as I am so I suggested this book as one I thought she'd be interested in (she had already expressed desire to see the movie) and she caught my bait.
So back to the doubts I had: 1) It's probably a manipulative tear-jerker 2) It's probably cliche and unrealistically romantic 3) The female character is probably a manic pixie dream girl 4) The male character is probably a moody, depressed asshole whose life will be changed by the entrance of the MPDG 5) Male character and female character probably fall in love 6) Happy ending
I figured I could just skip the book based on those assumptions. Well. Some of them turned out to be true but not all of them.
Assumption #1: It's probably a manipulative tear-jerker. Partially true- there are definitely some parts of the book where the author attempts to wring the tears from the reader's eyeballs. In all honesty, I didn't find the quality of the writing sufficient to become completely emotionally invested in the characters or their story. But overall I think Moyes did a good job of laying out events as they occurred and didn't spend a comparatively excessive amount of time on emotional manipulation just for its sake.
Assumption #2: It's probably cliche and unrealistically romantic. Also partially true. There are lots of the tropes one would expect from the genre. Boy and girl from two different worlds hate each other at first but end up loving each other. Never seen that one before. I feel like Moyes did a pretty good job of creating fairly believable characters, though, and having their relationship develop organically without forcing it.
Assumption #3: The female character is a manic pixie dream girl. False. For those who don't know, the manic pixie dream girl is an unofficial movie term for a female character who is quirky and bubbly and full of life and whose sole purpose is to snap her male counterpart out of his depressing and meaningless existence by showing him the joy of living. She has no story or aspirations of her own. She is cute and probably dresses eccentrically. Examples include Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown and Natalie Portman's character in Garden State. In this book, Lou is quirky (check), dresses eccentrically (check) bubbly and full of life (hmm... kind of?). Lou transcends the characterization by having goals and dreams and a story worth telling herself. She doesn't exist just to influence Will, they both change each other throughout the story.
Assumption #4: The male character is a moody, depressed asshole whose life will be changed by the entrance of the MPDG. With the exception of characterizing Lou as MPDG there's not really any getting around this one. Pretty true.
Assumption #5: Male character and female character fall in love. True. Though to the book's credit, not in a particularly contrived way.
I'll come back to the final point soon. Other random thoughts about the book: I like that it provided a little bit of commentary on how the world is still pretty inaccessible for people with disabilities. We've got a long way to go and should continue to advocate for people with motor limitations so that they can have access to all of the same things people without disabilities have access to.
The main complaint I've seen in reviews is the perception that the book makes a point of saying that no matter how much love, support, wealth, etc. a person has in their life, it's a not a life worth living if the person has a disability. The point in itself is offensive and devastating. I personally disagree with the notion, but really, my able-bodied experience has been such that I can't speak on behalf of anyone whose experience is different. I'll go ahead and say, though, that I didn't feel like this book was making that generalization. Let's be honest- there have been people in this world who have honestly felt like their life was not worth living because they found they couldn't live the life they wanted to. It has happened. Part of me appreciates that a character like that was given a voice even if it breaks my heart and I kind of wish there were more examples of characters in the story who represented the other, hopeful side of it.
As far as the issue of physician-assisted suicide, I thought there were characters who represented both sides of the issue fairly well and the final attitudes of the main characters seemed to reflect the truth of the characters as Moyes created them so as not to be too preachy.
Finally, point six. Assumption #6: Happy ending. I don't want to spoil anything more than I have. But happy endings in general are all a matter of perspective, right? ;)...more
This book has been labelled a psychological thriller and I'll concede that half of that classification is accurate. The first-person na2.5 ish stars.
This book has been labelled a psychological thriller and I'll concede that half of that classification is accurate. The first-person narrative, shared between three different characters, allows a complex psychological portrait of each character to be formed and provides insight into who these people are and why they do the things they do. These details unfold slowly and provide just as much incentive to continue reading as the "mystery" that drives the plot.
As far as being thrilling, this book really plays out like much more of a traditional mystery where events unfold, clues are slowly revealed (through a sort-of annoying plot device where the alcoholic main character regains memories of events she's lost during alcoholic blackouts), and red herrings are thrown in until the eleventh hour reveal where the culprit conveniently and calmly details the whats and whys of everything that's happened. Despite my perceptions of what this book would be like, it's not sexy, gritty or particularly thrilling. If anything it's just kind of awkward seeing such personal glimpses into the lives of these characters who aren't evil or sociopathic so much as they're just a bunch of insecure a-holes and trainwrecks who you always kind of pity even if you're shaking your head at them the whole time. The mystery itself doesn't even feel like a mystery so much as it does a psychological study wherein a disappearance just happens to occur. I didn't think it was very hard to figure out what was going on fairly early in the book. It's fairly well-written and moderately interesting and that's about as much as I can say. ...more
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