Lisa
Rounded up from 4.75. It's not often I give a thriller such a high rating but this was really well done. I really cared about the characters and all the twists were done super well. There is a small portion of the book where I felt it dragged a bit which is why it didn't get 5 stars. Really well done!
I will buy anything that V.E. Schwab writes. Her writing evokes feeling and atmosphere and I was fully absorbed in the story from the first page. The physical book is also beautiful and enhanced the reading experience for me - from the black edges (Owlcrate edition) to the illustrations, the journal within a book and the typography - I loved every moment of this reading experience.
I have a love / hate with unreliable narrators. I'm still trying to figure out which books with an unreliable narrator work for me and which don't. One thing I know for sure is that I understand the character may lie to me but I do not like it when the author lies to me.
The narration was fantastic and I liked the back and forth timeline. I was fully invested for the first 75% but the last 25% was not for me - too much whiplash and a blatant lie from the author knocked this book from a 4.5 star rating to a 3.5 star rating.
This book was everything I thought it would be a more. In the beginning I only read 20 pages a day and was waiting for the time when I could read 20 pages and not cry - which took over 100 pages to reach (and didn't happen often). You will feel the full range of motions when reading this. This is a must read for everyone and would love to see it taught in high school with a teacher that can guide the students thru processing their thoughts and emotions.
This book is very problematic - only looking at a small slice of why we do the things we do and ignoring the bigger reasons (our social structures of race & power). There are some good interesting insights in this book (particularly for me the discussion of how alcohol effects women and men differently and the social constructs around our use of alcohol) but a lot just left me feeling that more of a disservice has been done with this book by not talking about the elephants in the room.
Other reviewers have said it better - read thru the negative reviews on Goodreads...
I put this book down about half way thru because it felt like too much work. Two books later I picked it back up and finished the last half of the book in 2 days. I am still really confused by what happened in this book but I'm OK with that. I'm glad I went back and finished it. I wish that I had kept better track from the beginning of the book as to the cast of characters and all the bread crumbs that were left.
I listened to this on audio and had no issues following the change in place because it was clearly delineated by chapter. This is a character driven book and I really enjoyed Pasqual and Dee. It takes place in 1960's Italy and present day California. I ended up having to read the last chapter (Scribd membership issue that I won't rant about here) and it was everything. I'm so glad I had to read it - so beautiful and I loved how the author wrapped the book up.
I picked this book up because I wanted to read a Christmas book and didn't want it to be a romance. This book is wacky and I love it. Several laugh out loud moments. the whole time I was reading it I thought about Twin Peaks (although this book isn't near as dark as the show). The cast of characters is just fantastic. I'm looking forward to reading more Christopher Moore.
