The Readymade Thief
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“The most must-read of all must-reads.” —Marie Claire “A kickass debut from start to finish.” —Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad Lee Cuddy is seventeen years old and on the run. Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all. Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city—empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, and even the homes of vacationing families. But the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her—and why. A novel of puzzles, conspiracies, secret societies, urban exploration, art history, and a singular, indomitable heroine, The Readymade Thief heralds the arrival of a spellbinding and original new talent in fiction.
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Ouch. This was such a bitter disappointment...
I'm slightly unsure how to go about writing this review, because explaining why I didn't like this may mean going into plot spoilers. It was one of my most anticipated new releases of the year, as I was hoping for something in the vein of Marisha Pessl. A literary puzzle, a dark underground organisation, urban exploration... The blurb really made it sound exciting, so I can't fully express my disappointment. For now I'll just briefly outline why I couldn't stand most of this book:
- The pacing was completely off for a thriller. It started off unbearably slow, picked up somewhat in the middle, but then the conclusion is an intricate hot mess as the author attempts to find links between abstract art and convoluted science. It really felt like the author was grasping at straws to find a plot here.
- A lot of the plot was moved forward due to a level of utterly unrealistic luck for the protagonist. On top of that, several random characters continue to be overly helpful towards her for no apparent reason.
- Use of tropes that I quite honestly hate in fiction, but again as that would mean going into spoilers, I'll leave those unnamed...
- The protagonist, seventeen year old Lee, is a one-dimensional cardboard cutout of what the author thinks a teenager must be like. No spark, no charm, no common sense. She's stubborn and immature, which would be fine (at least they're character traits), but everything else about her is bland. She's barely a character.
- In fact, all the teenage characters seem completely fake and unrealistic. YA fiction seems intent on convincing me that teenage life is filled with fantastical drugs, “epic” partying, danger and heroism.. but, lets be honest, there is so much more to being a teenage, and indeed being a person then this mess. I just don't believe it and I don't care. Even in thrillers, I want believable characters and scenario. It feels like the author tried to pump every trope about rebellious teens that he could think of, to the point that it's just utterly ridiculous and I lost interest. (On a side note, I know this isn't being marketed as YA fiction, but, come on, with such a focus on supposed teenage life, this is most definitely YA. I don't know why publishers refuse to market some books as YA, when it would be completely appropriate considering the characters and subject matter, but then other books are marketed as YA when it seems completely inappropriate.)
- Talking of poor characterisation, Lee's family were like something out of a Roald Dahl book, but without the humour and wit, of course... I think we were meant to take these characters seriously? And they also added absolutely nothing to the plot, so what was the point?
- So many characters appear for a moment only to then never be heard from again (or conveniently killed off).
- Trust no-one. Obviously. A betrayal is no longer shocking if it's clear that the protagonist shouldn't trust anyone. Zzzzz.
