Anna

Gripping But Depressing

Revisado: 03-27-25

The Goldfinch is a gripping tale of psychological drama and art crime world intrigue. The writing is brilliant and the character portrayals well drawn. it's a long book and the endless passages devoted to Theo's drug addiction and depressive worldview are pretty oppressive and can get tedious at times. This is, overall, a portrait of an addict who is dealing with horrific unresolved childhood trauma. Some of the plot points are sensational and difficult to suspend disbelief to enjoy. The end was kind of a jumbled philosophical discourse that wouldn't necessarily have been the conclusion I would draw from the book. Overall a pretty engaging read with some fatal flaws.

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Tedious Manifesto

Revisado: 07-27-22

This was a tedious read. The kind of book where you keep checking to see how much longer you have till it's over. I prefer my history, biology, anthropology, environmental science, and philosophy straight up. The thinnest of plot lines and shoddy world building stitches together the monologues of sketchily developed characters who mouth the endless didactic rants about all of the above. While I was interested in the content and agreed with the general philosophy delivered through the story, centered around the apocalyptic results of humankind's brutal treatment of the planet and each other, I was overwhelmed by the ponderous detail and tended to zone out during the disconnected and decontextualized encyclopedic entries delivered by the characters. The endlessly detailed kinky and anachronistic sex interludes did nothing to enhance the storyline and were frankly cringy.

I'm not sure why I persevered to the end of this book but I would certainly not recommend it nor read another by this author.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

incredible story, irritating delivery.

Revisado: 12-15-21

The Every is every bit as brilliantly crafted and disarmingly chilling as its predecessor, The Circle. The narration, however, is a huge detractor. The narrator, while seemingly enamored of the sound of his own unctuous, lounge lizard-esque, sarcasm-laden voice, renders all the characters cartoonish in the same superficial manner. Generic, whiny cartoon nerd would be a good describer. Since the book is told from a female character's point of view and has so many women's voices among the characters, why not have gone with a woman narrator instead of a man imitating female voices in a stereotypical manner? The other super annoying narrative tic, noted by other reviewers, is the narrator's insistence on leaving a huge and unnecessary pause between every character's name and the word "said". If the intention of Audible is to get you to buy the print book after listening to the audiobook, mission accomplished! I'm going to have to read The Every again in print form to enjoy it properly without being constantly irritated and distracted by the delivery.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas

So disappointing

Revisado: 10-13-19

After a strong start with excellent narration, this much anticipated book devolved into a cheesy, implausible, sketchily written disappointment. As others have noted it reads like fanfiction or a script for the later seasons of the Hulu series when the story veers from the original premise with negative results. Better just to re-read the first Handmaid's tale which stands alone and needs no sequel, especially one that adds absolutely nothing to this dystopian classic.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Unbearable

Revisado: 01-11-19

I never but never fail to finish a book. Could not give this one a chance past the first several hours of listening. The characters are so artificial and uninteresting and the premise so nihilistic that I could find no reason to punish myself further. I am certain I am missing the point after reading such rave reviews. So be it.

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esto le resultó útil a 24 personas