Tadhg

I don't get it.
I did like it better than the film, which isn't saying much because I did not like the film at all. Only got the GN out of the mistaken belief that since the film was getting such rave reviews and was based on a GN that got great reviews that I'd just missed something in the film. I don't think I did.
There was nothing ‘special' about this story to me; nothing about it that stood out. Yes it's a first love story, but nothing about the characters made me care about them and major plot points happened really quickly without any importance really being given to them. The drug addiction came out of nowhere for me - I'll admit it's possible that I missed signs of it because I struggle with reading too quickly, particularly GNs, but I actually spent the whole book thinking she'd committed suicide.
I struggled with the font of Clementine's ‘handwriting', having to pause to figure out what the word was. It amuses me that in French ‘boohoo' is apparently ‘bou hou' :)

one of the more readable sci-fi classics I've tried, but I found it difficult to read it slowly enough to fully understand it. Found the psychology somewhat implausible but that only threw me out of the plot a few times. The twist did not surprise me; I've probably read too many books with that particular kind of twist, though that is hardly the fault of a book which is 60 years old.
Overall, an enjoyable enough read

not as clear a plot as Ancillary Justice, a definite feel of ‘middle book' syndrome, setting up the next book. Very enjoyable nonetheless

I'm going to lead with: not really my type of book. I read this because it was the May pick for The Perks of Being a Bookworm group; what I like about book clubs is that they are introducing me to books I would never think of reading. Sometimes this is a success, this time it wasn't.I did not enjoy actually reading this book, in fact I was somewhat reading it; I didn't have to force myself to read it, but I didn't care if I read it, I had no ‘need' to know what happened. If it had not been a group read and reasonably short, I would have stopped reading before I got halfway. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't really care about any of the characters apart from Singer and Biff, partly because of their selfishness regarding Singer, projecting their need onto him without caring about him for his own sake. I don't think it was simply that because even unlikeable characters can be compelling to read about, but not these. I did like the writing; I got a sense of each of the characters fairly quickly, some more than others, Dr Copeland in particular. This style of story does not grab me; I suppose I need a ‘quest' or similar to drive the story for me, even if that is used for social commentary. I recently read [b:Post Office 51504 Post Office Charles Bukowski http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347432080s/51504.jpg 823130] by [a:Charles Bukowski 13275 Charles Bukowski http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1361445522p2/13275.jpg] and I was reminded of it whilst reading that; I didn't particularly enjoy it either (2 stars again).

This is a 4.5 stars for me.In a sense, not much happens (which can also be said about [b:Among Others 8706185 Among Others Jo Walton https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317792367s/8706185.jpg 6449955]) though two lives shouldn't really be described as “not much”. This is a relatively gentle story and beautifully written - I can't wait to read [b:The Just City 22055276 The Just City Jo Walton https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416448145s/22055276.jpg 39841651]